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The American soldier’s code of conduct

By Michelle Malkin  •  April 5, 2007 01:43 PM

Apropos of the British sailors and marines’ release and their humiliation at the hands of Iran, an American officer in Iraq sent me this link to the DoD’s code of conduct for US soldiers:

I

I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

II

I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.

III

If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and to aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.

IV

If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.

V

When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

VI

I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

***

My Army friend writes that the release of the British servicemen “was no coincidence, and was Iran’s response to the escalation of measures against its nuclear program.” He urges that we open our eyes:

The world was distracted by the captured sailors incident, when it should have been focused on Iran’s nuclear intransigence. Instead Britain lost face and Iran became the benevolent captor. In my view, the incident on the border on September between US forces and border-violating Iranian forces was an earlier attempt by Iran to achieve a similar IO effect by
capturing US forces, staging video in Iranian territory, parading them around on TV, and acting magnanimous in their release.

This would, of course, forced us to deal with them face to face immediately before the GWB spoke to the UN (as well as Ahmadinejad). The problem is, of course, that US forces fight back and we don’t allow ourselves to be paraded like fools for the world to see (see below).

Britain’s shame is Iran’s gain. Iran failed in September, but not this time, yet no news source has come to the conclusion that Iran had perhaps tried this before (even though they’ve been doing it for 30 years).

***

Reader A. e-mails about the code of conduct:

“We had to memorize it in basic. When I got to my unit, we had to recite it whenever we saw the Battalion Commander and he asked us to. I can still recite it to this day and I got out in 1992.”

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