From Will at The Other News:
The Air Force, in response to an exclusive report published by Truthout earlier this week, has withdrawn materials used in a training session that relied upon passages from the New and Old Testament and a quote from an ex-Nazi SS officer to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons.
The Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training "has been taken out of the curriculum and is being reviewed," said David Smith, chief of public affairs of Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. "The commander reviewed it and decided we needed to have a good hard look at it and make sure it reflected views of modern society."
Smith said the ethics training has been in place for "20-plus years" and the decision to remove it was made on Wednesday after Truthout's report was published. He added that it will now be "given thorough scrutiny" and "folks will be appointed to look at what we have and determine its utility and if they think its useful to continue having an ethics course they will develop a new course."
The course was led by Air Force chaplains and took place during a missile officer's first week in training at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Officers who train to be missileers were required to attend the ethics course, which included a PowerPoint presentation on St. Augustine's "Christian Just War Theory" as well as numerous examples of characters from the New and Old Testament the training materials asserted engaged in warfighting in a "righteous way."
St. Augustine's "Qualifications for Just War," according to the way the Air Force characterized it in slides used in the ethics training, 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)."One of the PowerPoint slides also contained a passage from the Book of Revelation that claims Jesus Christ, as the "mighty warrior," believed some wars to be just.
At the conclusion of the ethics training session, missile officers were asked to sign a legal document stating they will not hesitate to launch the nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) "if lawfully ordered to do so by the President of the United States or his lawful successor."
The documents' blatant use of religious imagery and its numerous references to the New and Old Testament would appear to constitute a violation of the First Amendment establishing a wall of separation between church and state.
Read the full story here.
separation of church and state were words used by Jefferson to the Danbury Babtists-assuring them that the fed govt would not est a state (tax-payer $$$)supported church --
ReplyDeletethe words -separation of church and state do appear in a constitution- the old communist constitution of the soviet union...
C-CS
You don't want a religion involved that states "Thou Shall not Kill" , but you will tell everyone to 'respect' the Ramadan rules?
ReplyDeleteEthics training for officers in using nukes? Like those that have their hands on the the button have some kind of choice in the matter?
ReplyDeletePaleeeze...
I was one one such officer that had his finger on the button and I tell you I didn't have any choice in the matter. When the orders came down, you did what you were trained to do - like it or not. If you couldn't you shouldn't be there.
You can only pray that the people in charge had done everything they could to avoid the situation. If not - you followed procedure.
Period.
WC,
ReplyDeleteI did not know that had been your position in the Military. Wow.
I met another man who did that, and he told me the exact same thing.
Pasto - During the Cold War the US had possession of all nukes in Europe. Though there were nukes on missiles and shells in the NATO arsenal, the US maintained possession of the arming mechanisms under two-man control of US military personnel.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the two-man controls of the Nike-Herc anti-aircraft missiles at a German NATO Luftwaffe base.
When orders were given us, we were to turn over the armed nukes to the Germans and, through prior agreement, the Ruskies would blow up one half of Europe and NATO the other half.