"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." Thus spoke Henry Kissinger.

Some soldiers – though not all – and those who romanticize them might find this to be a callous statement. I wish I could agree. There is nothing more that I would like than to be able to say, "Henry, you are wrong." But, I happen to agree with the doctor on this one.

They are "stupid animals" for allowing themselves "to be used as pawns in foreign policy."

As soldiers, they took an oath to defend our constitution. Not the President, not Congress and certainly not Halliburton or Exxon/Mobil.

No, they took an oath to defend the constitution.

While we can certainly find flaws with our constitution – Bush did successfully stop Gore’s recount on constitutional grounds – and we can imagine things that should be addressed, like economic rights, we do have a basic framework in which many important and sound things are established.

For example, Article 6 makes it clear that any and all treaties signed by our government are the "supreme law of the land." This ensures that our relations with others are just as important as our relations amongst ourselves. And a violation of the agreements we have with others is a supreme violation of our own domestic laws.

So when we signed the UN Charter we made it the "supreme law of the land." This is important because our attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq are clear violations of the Charter. That is, our actions are nothing more than aggression; war crimes, a violation of the "supreme law of the land."

When we signed the Chemical Weapons Convention we made that treaty the "supreme law of the land." So, when U.S. forces used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah, Iraq this was a severe breach of that treaty; a violation of the "supreme law of the land."

Last Thursday a group of veterans from Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.org) gave an informal testimony about their experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of them, Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, demonstrated true courage, honor and loyalty when he said he would not obey his unlawful orders that want to send him to Iraq in June.

"I hereby lawfully refuse to participate as I will surely be a party to war crimes,"

We need more heroes like Mr. Chiroux. Those who are brave and willing enough to not only uphold their oath, but to make it clear that they are not "just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."

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