A tale of two creeds
When I suffered through U.S. Army Basic Combat Training way back in 1995, I heard about the Soldier’s Creed. I never learned it word for word. But the other night, while fucking around on Wikipedia, I stumbled across the creed I ‘lived by’ and discovered it has been revised recently. And not for the better.
My Soldier’s Creed:
I am an American Soldier.
I am a member of the United States Army–a protector of the greatest nation on earth.
Because I am proud of the uniform I wear, I will always act in ways creditable to the military service and the nation it is sworn to guard.
I am proud of my own organization. I will do all I can to make it the finest unit in the Army.
I will be loyal to those under whom I serve. I will do my full part to carry out orders and instructions given to me or my unit.
As a soldier, I realize that I am a member of a time-honored profession–that I am doing my share to keep alive the principles of freedom for which my country stands.
No matter what the situation I am in, I will never do anything, for pleasure, profit, or personal safety, which will disgrace my uniform, my unit, or my country.
I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my Army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform.
I am proud of my country and its flag.
I will try to make the people of this nation proud of the service I represent, for I am an American Soldier.
The new, improved creed:
I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.
This supposedly improved creed, published and disseminated in December 2003, is ambiguous and redundant.
Do we still wonder how Abu Ghraib happened? Still wonder how soldiers’ pictures of soldiers mocking and humiliating Iraqi prisoners came to be splashed across every television around the world? Note the lines “I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my Army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform” and “No matter what the situation I am in, I will never do anything, for pleasure, profit, or personal safety, which will disgrace my uniform, my unit, or my country” have been removed and replaced with generic lines like, “I will never quit” and “I will never leave a fallen comrade.”
I was once a troop. But I won’t support these troops until they march, and march hard, into Washington D.C. Remember, “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”