On November 10, 1775 in a tavern in Philadelphia the United States Marine Corps was born. 215 years later, on November 9, 1990, I graduated from boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, CA thus earning the title Marine. My arrival at MCRD had occurred on August 13, 1990, which readers may recall was eleven days after the Iraqi dictator, and former U.S. puppet, Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait. This action on Hussein’s part prompted a military response from the U.S. that eventually became the war known as Desert Storm. For me, it made boot camp a more stressful and traumatic experience than it ordinarily would have been.

For thirteen weeks, my platoon mates and I were subjected to the tyranny of our drill instructors whose jobs it was to turn kids into killers who would kill without question if called upon. Many people know that military boot camps tend to break recruits down in order to mold them into a soldier, sailor, airman, or a Marine through physical fitness regimens, weapons training, and generally reprogramming young people to go from a civilian into a military automaton. People who have never been to boot camp may not realize the amount of dehumanization and toxic stress goes into the process.

Part of the dehumanization process is stripping recruits of their individuality in order to mold them into compliant members of the military-industrial complex who follow the orders that trickle down from on high – from political leaders, capitalists, intelligence agencies, and military brass. From the haircuts, to repeated call and response, to learning by the numbers, and wearing the same uniforms, it all goes towards the goal of a recruit losing some of their personality and uniqueness. Then there is the combat training. When I was in boot camp, we did all manner of martial training from viscous hand-to-hand combat skills training which included using the M16 A2 rifle with an attached bayonet as a blunt force trauma or stabbing weapon while screaming maniacally with each butt-stroke and bayonet jab, to learning tactical combat formations, engaging in simulated combat scenarios, and weapons training including rifle marksmanship. Screaming like a banshee while training to kill other human beings was certainly dehumanizing to me and everyone who has done it. I don’t remember who said it, but there’s a quote I’ll paraphrase here, “If killing other people in war is so natural, then why do we have to train people to do it?”

The other part of dehumanization comes from the making human beings into an ‘enemy other.’ During my time in the Marines that enemy was Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi people, and anyone else we were told to hate enough to kill. When I was in boot camp we often did the obstacle course which culminated in a climb up a rope that was 30′ tall if my memory serves. Upon reaching the top of the rope each recruit was made to shout a slogan decided upon by his platoon’s senior drill instructor. One of the platoons in my company’s slogan was an example of enemy dehumanization and American racism -“Kill the rag-heads, bury them in the sand!” That is precisely what U.S. forces did in Desert Storm when some units buried Iraqis alive using modified earth-moving equipment. They could only commit that heinous atrocity by seeing those Iraqis as subhuman and having been trained to kill without thought or mercy.

In America, the glorification of the military and its members is part of a ceaseless propagandizing of the public whose goal is to make heroes out the armed forces regardless of what end they are being used to meet. This makes criticizing the military or the wars and conflicts that it engages in taboo and any attempt at waging peace is seen as unpatriotic or as an act of rebellion. The latter is why the US intelligence and law enforcement agencies keep tabs on pro-peace activists. The simple fact is that the U.S. military is the world’s leader in state sponsored terrorism around the globe and that members of the military are the pawns used by the powers that be in order to secure ever more wealth and more power. As Major General USMC Smedley Butler said, war is a racket and his entire career was spent being a “gangster for capitalism”. There are those whose paychecks depend on never ending warfare. The love of money is indeed the root of all evil.

The youth of America deserve far better than being pawns for the American military’s death and destruction. America’s Christians have too often succumbed to misguided patriotism as they reject Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God in favor of Niebuhrian Christian realism, just war theory, and might makes right. As theologian Walter Wink said, “Nonviolence is not just a means to the kingdom of God, it is a quality of the kingdom itself.” We cannot follow Jesus if we continue to support the American empire’s military terrorism. On this veteran’s day, I as a veteran and as a theologian ask Christian America, and Americans in general to reject the god of war and turn towards the path of nonviolence and community taught by the one we call the Prince of Peace. I call on Christian Americans to all be conscientious objectors who wage peace. This is the path of Jesus after all and he said it was a narrow one, but we can walk it together.

Peace.

My latest book is now available. Get it here: Theological Musings Volume 1