Jolly Roger

--Henry Every's Jolly Roger

We're rascals, scoundrels villains, and knaves
Drink up me hearties yo ho
We're devils and black sheep - really bad eggs
--Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me),
The Pirates of the Carribean

With cat-like tread,
Upon our prey we steal;
In silence dread,
Our cautious way we feel
--A Rollicking Band of Pirates We,
Pirates of Penzance

A state of war only serves
as an excuse for domestic tyranny
--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

___________________

The United States Marine Corps is not enjoying its its finest hour of late.

In mid-January 2012, a film showing four members of Marine Scout-Sniper Team 4 with 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines peeing on dead, “suspected” Taliban bodies went viral. Next, U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, accused of leading a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005, pleaded guilty later in the month to "dereliction of duty", avoiding the more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault (he was originally charged with homicide). He received zero jail time. In the USMC it seems revenge killing is viewed as good soldiering.

Now the Scout-Snipers are back in the news as 2010 pictures of a platoon taken in Helmand province’s Sangin district posing in front of a Nazi SS insignia has surfaced. Something is wrong in the USMC; the institution seems to have has lost its moral compass.

In the current issue of Tactical Knives Magazine (p.25, May 2012), Ranger noticed the black flag patches with death’s head on the uniforms of some Navy SEALS. This hearkens back to the old pirate flag, the Jolly Roger, which stood for “No Quarter” – when the Jolly Roger is hoist, all enemy will be killed. This should not be a comforting concept to non-warrior taxpaying citizens.

When Seal Team 6 entered Osama bin Laden’s home, they took no quarter. No quarter is neither a Geneva Convention concept, nor one of civilized societies.

The U.S. has a Navy and USMC running amok, indulging attitudes and actions that run counter to core U.S. values. Doubly troubling is that the Chain of Command encourages, or at least permits, these excesses. Is Admiral McRaven, U.S. Special Operations Command, blind? Does he not see these deaths head patches?

Why does the U.S. allow any deaths head on any patch, official or non? Are we now reduced to adoration of SS Runes? Did the U.S. win WW II only to co-opt the loser’s symbolism? Is that what we have become? Surely these skulls do not represent the brotherhood of man. Why did we fight the Nazis?

After numerous discussions with current soldiers, Ranger believes that they think that hate is a legitimate and necessary military tool, and that inhumanity is to be expected on today’s battlefield. However, it is Ranger’s belief that soldiering should not involve hatred, if only for pragmatic reasons, as it minimizes military effectiveness. I was a professional soldier, not a professional killer. The two concepts are distinct, and that is one of things that sets an American soldier apart from his tyrannical counterparts.

When we abandon our humanity we are no longer soldiers and have crossed the lines into warriors, and any soldierly creeds mouthed become merely hollow words. The actions mentioned above indicate the military is not on the same sheet of music as the U.S. Armies of recent past.