The Hypocritical U.S. Foreign Policy

George Bush recently gave this advice to Iraqi soldiers about how they should act as soldiers:

Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished. And it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders."

Of course this statement is extremely hypocritical as any U.S. President, Republican or Democrat, would never allow a military member to disregard orders on a moral objection. Laurence Vance writes on this topic in an essay called "I Was Just Following Orders" where he examines the hypocritical nature of U.S. military intervention and aggression around the globe:

No soldier in any of the world’s other 193 countries is supposed to follow an order to fire a weapon at an American soldier, sink an American ship, shoot down an American plane, drop a bomb on American territory, invade American soil, mine an American harbor, occupy an American city, torture an American, or kill an American. Those that do are considered terrorists, insurgents, and enemy combatants, all worthy of torture.

But if an American solider is ordered to launch a preemptive strike against Iraq, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to bomb Afghanistan, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to drop napalm in the jungles of Vietnam, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to invade Korea, he should just follow orders. If an American solider is ordered to put down an insurrection by Filipinos, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to firebomb a German or Japanese city, he should just follow orders.