| Immortal Technique |
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Rap Artist
"There are many words that are used to describe those who would struggle and die for us in the field, Soldiers, Warriors, Fighters, Martyrs. The difference in these is not just in the context of their use but rather what each implies literally. A fighter will lash out at any given opportunity, the youthful seemingly immortal spirit to challenge anything that would offer even a remote opposition. Whereas the Martyr goes into battle knowing that he or she will probably never see home again and has fully accepted that looking towards the greater part of what they will contribute to the battle beyond this life. The soldier is really more of an entry level position to these various orders, it is a necessity after all to follow directions and comply with them before one can ever learn to give them. It is true that a fighting force of any men or women without discipline is nothing regardless of size and armament. But there comes a time in every soldiers life either personal or within the confines of his career that he begins to question his role in war and in the political aspect of what occurs in the name of his or her nation. The soldier is not a mindless drone but a human being who is recruited while they are very young for obvious purposes. The frontal lobe of the brain is not fully developed until the human being is about 23 years old. And therefore a perspective is forged in that time. So whereas the young soldier will question disagree and still fight out of as they were trained to and an old soldier will question disagree and still fight because of the conditioning to ignore any other moral impulse they both reflect that manufactured perspective. Yet there is another method to contemplating this. A soldier, a fighter and a martyr (for which there have been many of all races, nationalities, and religions throughout the course of time) can make the decision to look beyond who they are to just themselves and look to who they represent as a people. This is when they become a warrior, a warrior after all must be all these things I have mentioned and more, yet they are still simply just a piece of a man. How deep God had to reach to actually create us we might never know, but I know that God inspires a warrior to choose his battles and to choose not just what is best for himself but rather what is best for his people above all. A warrior takes orders but also reserves the right to question them, and if his request is met with dismissiveness and irreverence through the chain of command, he then takes his question to the people. More and more there are credible voices in America who are becoming warriors and who profess to have concerns for the American public. However the status of their being will not be known to us until we see what they actually do with their lives when they do not leave for Iraq. Should they dedicate their lives to the service of fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves here in this country and exemplify a fighting spirit that seeks to protect and not bring death to those we have drawn faceless in our minds 10,000 miles away, we will know they were true. But if they should leave the service and live their lives just for themselves, if they should do as many did in the Vietnam era and seek deferment for nothing more than personal gain then we will know that their reservations were the embrace of a selfish desire rather than a conscious objection and a desire to pursue a path of altruism rather than destruction. Really this letter was never designed for Lt. Watada or others like him to use at all here and now, it was made as a marker to judge him and the many others based on what they do in the future and how true they are to what they professed to illustrate to the people of America. This path he asks for is not easy to live up to and will require a life of dedicated precision and hard work, beyond any years he could have spent in the military. I know there is a debate on what basis we should offer him this chance, but I say it is a chance to prove himself that will not cost any lives and I say this because there are things that take many lives to prove. For example, the US government has gone to great pains to give President George Bush the chance to put 20,000 plus more troops in the cauldron of sand and civil war and to give his vision (which has already been questioned by his own party, the military both brass and grunt alike, and most of the American public) another chance. By that logic surely the Armed forces and the American justice system that has hopefully evolved from the kangaroo court days and lynch proceedings of the past can think of a more constructive position for Lt. Watada than rotting in a cell. If every time a woman or man called to war chose not to fight when he joined the Military with that prospect looming over his head in the bargain, then this Military as any other would fall apart. But, there is something to be said for what future he has a soldier, a warrior and as an example of humanity with American citizenship that we advertise across the world." Respectfully Submitted. Immortal Technique |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 February 2007 ) |
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