"If you can't stand behind the troops, feel free to stand in front of them!"

Perhaps you have seen this statement on bumper stickers, social media memes, or web forum conversations. Maybe it has even been told to you in conversation. It's a frustrating thing to be given such an empty response to criticism of foreign policy.

Instead of addressing concerns about entangling alliances, support for totalitarian regimes, establishment of puppet dictatorships, the deaths of civilians, and the risk of blowback, the defender of militarism says, "If you're not with us, you're against us." Instead of acknowledging historical precedents and philosophical questions, the war hawks demand unquestioning support for their policies and declare dissent to be treason. Soldiers say, "If you haven't signed up, you should shut up," as though theirs is the only relevant perspective.

This kind of thought is antithetical to liberty. We are being taxed to fund the military adventurism that pervades the policies of both US parties. We suffer the consequences when terrorists strike back. We bear the brunt of the resulting police state ratcheting up after every instance of blowback.

Meanwhile, the fact remains that the US military has murdered thousands of civilians, destroyed uncountable homes and businesses, and demolished entire economies. They have supported dictators. The myth of democracy declares I am complicit in these crimes committed by the government that says it represents me. It is necessary that I speak out.

If this makes me an enemy of the military, the military is on the wrong side. I am not bound to bend my principles to the dictates of the political class. My freedom is not lost somewhere in the middle east, Africa, or Afghanistan like a Roman army standard captured by Germanic barbarians or Persian kings waiting to be reclaimed. If the military can't stand with me here and now as I exercise my freedom of conscience and right to dissent, what can they say they stand for?