THE JUDGMENTS OF A SOLDIER

 

�� �Those who are struggling with themselves aren�t useful to us; there is no place for them in the army� Young people are incapable of confronting existence with sacrifices, expectations, disappointments and they collapse before the first obstacle. What are our young people made of?�

�� With these words general Loi (former commander of Folgore from �92 to �93 and of the �Sicilian Vespers� operation in 1992) remarked on the suicide of a cadet at the prestigious Military Academy of Modena, of which he is the director, receiving a series of more or less self-interested indignant criticisms for it.

�� But what the hell do they expect of a military man, a man paid to kill, willing to satisfy the demands of whoever happens to be in power? What else could a person trained to obey every order, rejecting any personal critical faculty unless it helps to fulfill his duty more efficiently.

�� Granted, the general did not cut a fine figure speaking of military preparation: while he was on a mission in Somalia, two of his men were killed, one by a young boy while he was jogging the way he would in the courtyard of his own house, the other after having played a joke on his corporal by peeking in the window of the house where his superior was � who shot him in the head.

�� The hypocritical fa�ade of the leftist politicians and of the pathetic exponents of our gallant youth is made clear with arguments that call to mind the slogans and watch-words of the advertisements for enlistment into the armed forces: a social career (above all, secure), professionalism, civil obligation and prostitution of a sort. We are accustomed to viewing the army as a mixture of pious souls that are used for thousands of humanitarian causes around the world. Perhaps the problem is that in this buffoonish state, one is accustomed to hearing military personnel spoken of as social assistants, sisters of charity, peaceful educators, sportsmen.

�� The words of the other cadets about the one who killed himself are much clearer: �We must be sure of ourselves. We will become officers, and we cannot be indecisive in front of our troops.�

�� It does not pleas the good souls of charitable, religious and democratic pacifism to recognize that the man in uniform is a pure creation of the oppression of the state, an indispensable tool of the blind and violent imposition that is made to intervene when the little lies about rights and duties are no longer adequate, when individuals head straight for their own path, toward freedom, cutting down the obstacles that get in their way. Of course, dialogue interests the state, but only in the shadow of a large amount of uniforms, now present everywhere in a suffocating manner (the suffocating� presence of which is everywhere). Again the cadets: �There must be unity between the military world and the civilian world. The army is not outside society. When we take its oath, we do it for civil society, for all.�

�� The general and his clones have spoken clearly, still displaying the customary ridiculous apparatus of every good military man: they are obedient robots and nothing else. This is their function. If we don�t like it, let�s throw them all into the sea without discussion.