In accordance with Army Public Affairs Regulation 360-1, the following opinions are those of the author and do not reflect the official position or policy of the Department of Defense, the Army, or the United States Government.

As a proud noncommissioned officer in the United States Army, I will, as Admiral Mullen calls for in his article “Military must stay Apolitical,” execute my assigned mission despite feeling that the occupation of Iraq harms my country and destroys my military. My love of my fellow servicemembers and the nation compels me to put aside any partisan leanings and defend even those I disagree with, and my oath compels me to obey legal and moral orders regardless of who sits in the White House or what his political party may be. Yet my love of my country, my love of the Army I serve, and my deep devotion to my Constitution compels me to speak in opposition to current national policy. I would give my lifeblood for my country: should I value that country any less than to give it the service and courage of my words as well?

The first words that a military member speaks in his initial oath of enlistment are “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We join the military service of our nation, not for temporary political goals or policies, but to assist in the purpose of that constitution – to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

The current occupation of Iraq does none of these, and that is why my honor, as well as those of my fellow servicemembers and veterans of Iraq Veterans Against the War, compels me to resist it with as loud and thunderous a voices as I may command. To suggest that servicemembers confine their political opinions and discussion only to minor debates amongst themselves is to deprive not just the servicemembers themselves of their voice and right to participate in the political process, but also to deprive the Nation of the experience, dedication, and loyalty these patriots bring.

As the Greek historian Thucydides said, “A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” Presidents and politics come and go, but the Constitution and the nation of free men that support it must endure. Admiral Mullen forgets something in his article – those of us in current military service wear something other than our military insignia on our sleeve. So long as we are at war, our right shoulder also bears the American flag. It will always be a constant reminder of the ideals and beliefs we have to live up to as citizens of a country founded by men that believed that justifiable dissent was not just a viable form of expression, but the highest form of patriotism.

SGT Selena D. Coppa
35S, USA