Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons

Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons

www.truth-out.org

The mandatory Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare session, which includes a discussion on St. Augustine's "Christian Just War Theory," is led by Air Force chaplains and takes place during a missile officer's first week in training at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

St. Augustine's "Qualifications for Just War," according to the way it is cited in a 43-page PowerPoint presentation, are: "to avenge or to avert evil; to protect the innocent and restore moral social order (just cause)" and "to restore moral order; not expand power, not for pride or revenge (just intent)."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ee gads!! (which, in case of unknown etymology, is a form of "Ye Gods")....

Wait. What?? Our bomber pilots are given Christian mythology and Bible lessons to help them deal with bombing people while at the same time accusing others bombing our people of religious extremism?

What sort of hogwash is this??!!

Air Force suspends ethics course that used Bible passages to train missile launch officers

www.washingtonpost.com... ers/2011/08/02/gIQAv6V2pI_blog.html?wpixs_0005

David Smith, a spokesman for the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command, said that the program had initially been designed to “help folks understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. In the missile launch industry, it takes a certain mindset to be able to walk in the door and say, yes, I can do that.”

But he added: “Senior leadership looked at [the material for the course] and said, no, we could do better than this.”

The reversal marks a victory for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that provided the documents to Truthout and that has waged a series of battles, legal and otherwise, to preserve the separation of church and state in the services.

Well, THAT's a relief. They won't teach the incoming bombers that rhetoric anymore....why?
Because they got CAUGHT.

Criminitlies...

One of Weinstein’s clients, Damon Bosetti, who served as an Air Force captain and attended missile officer training in 2006, told Truthout that he and his colleagues used to call the religious section of the ethics training the “Jesus loves nukes speech.”....Asked why it might have taken more than 20 years for someone to raise objections to the training course, Weinstein said he suspected airmen were simply scared to speak up.

The Air Force said a new course was to be developed.

Good grief.



www.truth-out.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm going to duck in advance because I know I'll get pilloried for this, but I'm not sure I see the problem in the indoctrination they do for this, as a very specific example.

We're asking the guys who go through this to not only commit suicide, but become a mass murderer beyond any imaginable number they ever contemplated. Whether the order to launch is for all the right or wrong reasons, their act, taken in isolation as they would be, can't be seen as much more complex than that. So..How do you get a normal, highly intelligent and highly driven young man to not only kill themselves but everyone and everything they've ever known in life at the order of someone they've never met and likely won't even hear the voice of?

If we want to have men sitting at those consoles, ready to turn those keys at the command of the people we elect, I dare say we have to accept some rather questionable methods to insure the men sitting there are mentally capable of doing the unthinkable...with no notice...every time.

Sad world we are faced with sometimes, isn't it?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I agree with your sentiments in principle, but I don't see the benefit is using the single most bloodthirsty and destructive religion the world has ever known (personal opinion) as a way of convincing airmen to "push the button". In fact, I would hazard a guess that it makes them more likely attack when they shouldn't based on a convincing leader's personal moralities.

Well, I won't pillory you, but get a load of the articles. What astonishes me is that

A senior Air Force Space and Missile officer who reviewed the materials, said the teachings are "an outrage of the highest order."

"No way in hell should this have been presented as a mandatory briefing to ALL in the basic missiles class," the officer, who requested anonymity, said in an email. "It presumes ALL missile officers are religious and specifically in need of CHRISTIAN justification for their service.

So, apparently he did not KNOW this was going on??
Just how disjointed IS the Air Force?? How can this be happening and the senior officials (equal to school superintendents, I would assume) NOT KNOW it is in the curriculum?

And the quotes by Werner Von Braun that they used:

One of the most disturbing slides quotes Wernher Von Braun, a former member of the Nazi Party and SS officer. Von Braun, regarded as the father of the US space program, is not being cited as a scientific expert, rather he's specifically being referenced as a moral authority, which is remarkable considering that the Nazi scientist used Jews imprisoned in concentration camps and captured French anti-Nazi partisans and civilians to help build the V-2 rocket, a weapon responsible for the death of thousands of British civilians.

"We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision [emphasis in document] more than anything else," Von Braun said upon surrendering to American forces in May 1945. "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured." [emphasis in document]

Wow. Just, wow.

To launch or not to launch tis' the question that must not be spoken, turn the key when the time comes, with out hesitation, for after it does not matter, no one is left anyway, them that are would be better off dead.
Slow death for most, quick and unknowing for some, ME i want to be at the top hill watching it all , Glow glow glow the world below, for it is time to start a new.
This time do it right, do not open the box, man does not need to see in the night, if he does, let him do it by candle light.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Yes, it's called brainwashing. Or, as ex-military peeps like to refer to it, "transformation" from an ethical normal person into a killer.

Are you familiar with the way the infantry is trained (or was) years ago, in Japan? If I recall accurately, it had to do with wiping their ethics-mode out entirely. I'll see if I can find a link to it, but when I was in grad school I did a thesis on it. I learned about it by researching a guy's theory on how video games are destructive to ethics and humanitarian...if I can't find it online, I'll go down and dig out the thesis I wrote just as soon as my spine heals (I am crippled for the time being).

and, you say "we are asking them to commit suicide?"
Nono. That's the extremist-Al Qaeda-we-want-Sharia-law-and-ancient-religious-doctrine's way of training suicide bombers (the wackjobs with bombs strapped to themselves)....
Our guys are expected to push a little button and sit tight in a bunker while millions of others perish. Cuz Jesus says it's ok.

reply to post by wildtimes

Note this reply was to the message before last... We apparently typed at the same time.


The religious aspect is perhaps the least surprising, I think. A quick check of Google confirmed my memory as the Air Force having far more than their fair share of faith related scandals and Christian bias issues going back into the 90's at least. I wonder how many sitting in the new classes at Vandenburg aren't Christian by virtue of Air Force selection processes?

The approach strikes me as light brainwashing though and I'll just bet that Van Braun wasn't casual or off handed for the selection. There are books written about how they do this with Nuclear Weapons control and release. The billions that go into just the personnel side is staggering to read about. I'm betting they spent untold fortunes and time with focus groups and the like to select not only Von Braun and the Bible, but which specific words and phrases...in which order...delivered in just what way.

Here's a link to an article from ten years ago related to adolescent aggression and how the limbic system and amygdala are affected, including developmental data.
www.geneseo.edu...

The effects of violent video games on adolescents
The overlooked influence of development

Now, keep in mind that soldiers are primarily ADOLESCENTS, when in training. Prime time to indoctrinate them into a hyper-aggressive mindset.

Here's a snip from the Japanese mindset method:

The first requirement of the samurai is a readiness to give his life. Without this willingness even the best weapons are of no avail. First the spirit, then training wins victory. The spirit must from the beginning include the willingness to die. That does not mean that the Japanese soldier seeks death. Rather, in sacrificial death in battle he finds the most perfect fulfillment of his life. But he wants to achieve a goal through his death — the realization of justice, which is the highest manifestation of the divine will of the emperor. His first military goal is not his own death, but rather the realization of that for which he fights.

www.calvin.edu...

And then there's this:

Chinese Army Training Video game Targets US troops

Glorious Mission (also known as Mission of Honor) is being used a training tool for PLA recruits treads on some dangerous territory by piquing U.S. concerns of nationalism and anti-American sentiments. Using video games for military training methods is nothing new; in 2008 the U.S. Army invested $50 million to develop games for combat preparation. What’s raising eyebrows with Glorious Mission is the choice to focus on American troops as China’s primary enemy.

According to the report, the Chinese military has made use of training via video games before, but the software was often developed by companies outside of the country. The PLA wanted to create a game closer to home in order to instill Chinese values and avoid any elements that could “mislead Chinese army officers and soldiers.”

Ironically, the Chinese game is modeled after the US Army developed first-person shooter game “America’s Army”.

www.liveleak.com...

But I digress. Sorry if this is straying off-topic...but it's quite alarming.
Here's another article:

The US Military is Luring and Brainwashing American Children,,,From Moral Individuals to Obedient Recruits...If They Survive

www.informationclearinghouse.info...

But by this point, for those particular young people, it doesn’t matter why they joined up—it’s too late to change their minds. No matter how young or troubled and no matter how dishonestly they were recruited, they are now the property of the US government.

In the only form of enslavement that’s legal in the US, the military now owns them—body, mind and soul. And once they’re in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever the next war may be, they can be held against their will for as long as their leaders wish.

So much for all the Bush administration’s chatter about faith, morality and family values: It wants to take your children from you, change their moral values, and transform them into playing pieces for its global game of Risk.
...For all these teens who aren’t even old enough to buy liquor, the decision to sign up is considered irrevocable. If they grow up a bit, and realize that they have signed a piece of paper before they’d learned how to do their own laundry, they are given no opportunity to say, “I made a mistake; this isn’t for me”.

If they try to do so, they’ll be hunted down like dogs, held up in the media as a coward or a “deserter”, and court-martialed by that same military that lured them in with promises of fast cars and pretty girlfriends.

and more...

And so it goes with every youth who enters that cult-like world of radical authoritarianism and leader-worship. Rather than strengthening their minds and bodies through positive coaching and training, today's imperial armies need willing killers and cannon fodder in a hurry, so they've resorted to classic brainwashing techniques perfected by China and the USSR long ago, to purge conscience and instill the urge to hate, to kill without qualm, and to place oneself in harm's way without argument.

Sure hope its better than,,, The Doctorine of Credibility,,,, boy was that one a doozy.

....Separation of what? I would assume religion is just another tool to appeal to base emotions rather than logic, and therefore a successful approach? *shaking head*

How long do you think it will be before we can purchase "Jesus Loves Nukes" t-shirts?

reply to post by HolographicPrincipal


Soon as you print 'em up, I guess.
Make sure you put an Air Force logo on there somewhere.

/sarcasm

You know, it's bothersome that this news was def not in MSM anywhere. Wonder why not?

Originally posted by rogerstigers
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I agree with your sentiments in principle, but I don't see the benefit is using the single most bloodthirsty and destructive religion the world has ever known (personal opinion) as a way of convincing airmen to "push the button". In fact, I would hazard a guess that it makes them more likely attack when they shouldn't based on a convincing leader's personal moralities.

I am a bit taken aback by the opening assertion, and I would caution your use of hyperbole; even if it is qualified as your opinion. Your assertion is far from correct.

This training was not intended to proselytize, nor indoctrinate. It was developed by people who believed what they wrote, and thus carries their own dogma embedded within it.

Despite some jaded opinions of people in general, not everyone is the starry-eyed child waiting like a vessel to be filled with someone else's idea of wisdom.

In most cases I wager these airmen took what they were told with the appropriately glacier-sized grain of salt it required... and even if they hadn't; their superiors and peers would have seen to it that a more pragmatic and realistic logic lies behind the orders they receive.

Originally posted by bekod
To launch or not to launch tis' the question that must not be spoken, turn the key when the time comes, with out hesitation, for after it does not matter, no one is left anyway, them that are would be better off dead.
Slow death for most, quick and unknowing for some, ME i want to be at the top hill watching it all , Glow glow glow the world below, for it is time to start a new.
This time do it right, do not open the box, man does not need to see in the night, if he does, let him do it by candle light.

Regardless of how others think, I think it takes a lot of courage to push the button or turn the key when the time comes. Its the conscious that comes in the way. Generally the job is not left for people with weak nerves or a guilty conscious. The aim of the AF is perhaps on the same line as the famous quote of Lord Krishna to Arjuna just before the commencement of the epic war at Kurukshetra. War is not for everyone. War is never a preferred method to resolve disputes (individual or for a society or country). But when in self defense mode(not offense), certain actions are required which is where the morality and conscious needs to be strenghtened otherwise one risks a defeat or death.

Google "Gita Chapter 2, Verse 47"

See the links below.

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty."

LINK1
LINK2

We can always find flaws and conspiracy with anything and everything in life. However the reality of WARs are not the same. Most the morals, ethics and rules are out the door when one is on a defensive posture. It is about making a decision with a calm posture despite the situation is the aim of the training perhaps?????

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Yes, it's called brainwashing. Or, as ex-military peeps like to refer to it, "transformation" from an ethical normal person into a killer.

Are you familiar with the way the infantry is trained (or was) years ago, in Japan? If I recall accurately, it had to do with wiping their ethics-mode out entirely. I'll see if I can find a link to it, but when I was in grad school I did a thesis on it. I learned about it by researching a guy's theory on how video games are destructive to ethics and humanitarian...if I can't find it online, I'll go down and dig out the thesis I wrote just as soon as my spine heals (I am crippled for the time being).

and, you say "we are asking them to commit suicide?"
Nono. That's the extremist-Al Qaeda-we-want-Sharia-law-and-ancient-religious-doctrine's way of training suicide bombers (the wackjobs with bombs strapped to themselves)....
Our guys are expected to push a little button and sit tight in a bunker while millions of others perish. Cuz Jesus says it's ok.

Though I disagree with them injecting religion into the aspect of their job, I do have to say the dehumanization is essential for war of all nature. I feel ultimately that these people have to be numb and take orders without thinking or rationalizing their objectives. They are pawns and need to be pawns(All military personnel) to be effective machines. I say keep Jesus out and just break them down mentally and build them without emotion as much as possible.

S+F

Let's face it, for the person to push the button that is going to exterminate millions of people requires a certain level of zealotry, and what better source for that zealotry than the religions of hate? Almost any religion would work (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc.) but only one if viewed by our Air force as the "correct" religion.

reply to post by RCTD58


Uh, first of all, welcome to ATS. I guess I should feel honored that my thread got your first post.

Second of all, I respectfully offer that those young people who DO survive the training (whether founded on religious dogma or not) of dehumanization are thereafter warped. WARPED. Twisted humans.

How can this be good?
Break them down into mush, then build them back up into tools of destruction. I disagree that this is acceptable in any manner. It is artificially creating sociopaths, and we have enough of those who "accidentally" got that way to begin with.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Notice that in the above referenced methodologies, each culture uses their own particular self-serving spiritual dogma. The east (Japan, China, etc) use the ideas of Zen, samurai, whatever. The Islamist extremists use the bevvy of virgins and martyrdom. The Christians, well, they've been annihiliating people for eons. As for Judaism, I'm not sure if they have dogmatic hate doctrines -- I was raised Protestant and when I was an adolescent turned my back on organized religion prior to extensive research into all the world's religious tenets. Fascinating stuff.

One would think that 2000 (for the Christians and Islamists) to 6000 years -- or more? -- (for the Chinese and Japanese cultures of Buddhism/Tao) of imperial religious zeal would have evolved by now. But sadly, we are not more advanced in our spirituality than ever. We are not civilized as a global population.

In my opinion.
I've said before, and this theory seems backed up by my studies into warfare mentality and the male persona/testosterone/biology science (as it stands now).
The men are programmed to destroy each other. The women are programmed to grab the kids and run for the hills.
I honestly wonder what the world would be like if, in a fantasy world, women were in charge. ONLY women.
I think there would be far less murder.

Just my hunch.
ETA: I mean programmed as in brain-wired. Biological gender-related tendencies. Not artificial manipulation.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by HolographicPrincipal

 

Soon as you print 'em up, I guess.
Make sure you put an Air Force logo on there somewhere.

/sarcasm

You know, it's bothersome that this news was def not in MSM anywhere. Wonder why not?

Ha! I'll get right on it.

I'm sure if it did garner more attention in MSM, it would open doors to a dialog of whether that is acceptable or not, and. Well, we can't have that now, can we.

Breaking humans down to be tools of war? All the more reason to get those robots up and running asap.

reply to post by HolographicPrincipal


Thing is, this is easily researched and the status quo. It's just not something they teach us in "school". sigh.
When I was reading the Dulce Report the other day (a supposed/rumoured/suspected joint military installation of US and extraterrestrial entities), they were working on developing clones -- even came up with one that was "artificial intelligence human clone", designed to be a soldier. Thing was, the doctor (Wolf) in charge of this monster (a la Frankenstein's) surreptitiously embedded ethics into the humanoid, and when it refused to kill an innocent dog (due to this training), it was "eliminated."

Military/intelligence scientists learned cloning techniques from the extraterrestrials. After perfecting cloning techniques on animals, Dr. Wolf and his associates cloned an artificial-intelligence human being, "J-Type Omega", as part of Project SENTINEL, an effort to create a superbright, superpowerful soldier who would follow orders without fear or question. The J-Type clone was terminated, because he would not follow an order to kill an innocent dog, because Dr. Wolf had surreptitiously programmed ethics into his artificial intelligence.

www.abovetopsecret.com...



Makes ya wonder.


ETA: Don't want to derail this thread into an aliens-or-no-aliens debate. But it shows the mentality of what the military does to actual human youths. Sickening.