An Open Letter To The Secretary of Defense And Pentagon Leaders

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin et al:

I write to you today to ask that you rescind your Covid vaccination requirements for our servicemen and women, for Department of Defense employees, and for contractors.  I offer two principal reasons for your consideration.

The Medical Case

First, the Covid vaccines are all experimental.  The only one the FDA has approved is from Germany and is unavailable in the US.  The vaccines are unlike any vaccine previously in use, and both their short- and long-term effects are poorly understood at best.  What is known is that the Covid vaccines are the deadliest vaccines ever released in this country.

To date, a minimum of over 17,000 deaths have been reported as resulting from the Covid vaccines, and over 83,000 hospitalizations, just within the last nine months.  For all other vaccines in use, the total number of deaths is less than three hundred per year.  Because the reporting system is voluntary, the actual number of deaths from the Covid vaccines is more likely over 150,000.

The CDC claims that the vaccines are over 95% effective in reducing the severity of symptoms of a Covid infection.  This information is obsolete.  The current form of the Covid virus is the Delta variant, and against that variant, effectiveness is less than 40%, well below the threshold where a vaccine is considered effective.

Furthermore, recent research shows that there is no significant difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated in terms of infection rates.

Many of the reported side effects of the vaccines are severe and occur in otherwise young, healthy individuals like those in military service.  They are often debilitating and require long-term hospitalization and even lifetime care.

Much of the vaccine information presented by the CDC is untrustworthy, obsolete, and does not reflect the current research findings on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.  It must be considered misinformation and should be discounted or even dismissed in making a decision regarding vaccination orders.

The CDC has disregarded the superior immunity offered by natural immunity obtained through recovery from a Covid infection.  At this point, it is likely that most of those who remain unvaccinated have experienced a Covid infection and recovered.

Vaccination will offer no benefit to these people and puts them at unnecessary risk of death or disability from the vaccine.

It makes no good sense to require vaccination by a vaccine that confers little or no benefit while putting otherwise healthy young people at risk of death or disability.  To require vaccination is to actually increase the risk to national security by undertaking an action that has such a negative risk to reward ratio.

The Military Case

Second, some may believe that rescinding the vaccination requirements would be detrimental to good military order and discipline.  Orders have been issued and it is the duty of all service personnel to obey them or face consequences.

It is well understood, though, that no officer should issue an order that is likely not to be obeyed.  To do so is extremely corrosive to discipline. There are at least two types of orders that will not be obeyed.  The first of these is an unlawful order.  Military law is clear that unlawful orders must not be obeyed, but rather must be actively resisted.  A second type is one that clearly serves no good purpose and will actually be harmful to the interests of the service were it to be obeyed.

Regarding the second type, it has long been an obligation of lower officer ranks and of NCOs to point out the harmful effects of such orders and to advise and guide their superiors in development of effective and proper orders.  The current objections to vaccine requirements should be considered to be an example of such guidance.

As for the first type, service members swear an oath first to support and defend the Constitution, bearing true faith and allegiance to the same, and then to obey the orders of the President and of superior officers, in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  It is that code that requires only lawful orders to be obeyed.  It is questionable that orders to be injected with an experimental substance constitute lawful orders, especially when such substance may render the person unfit for duty.

The services have long traditions of dealing with improper orders, ranging from “soldiering” – following orders exactly and to the letter without attention to the intent of the order, to Vietnam era fragging.  These traditions are corrosive to good military order and discipline, destructive of morale, and are often entirely warranted responses to harmful or impossible orders.  I am not advocating or encouraging such actions, but merely wish to remind the leadership that service goes both ways.

It has been said that the most expensive military is one that is second best.  By forcing unnecessary and harmful vaccinations on unwilling troops, under penalty of dishonorable discharge or other threat should they not comply, puts our military at risk, and consequently our country.  We can ill afford the loss of any personnel, whether they are specialists or front line troops, SEALS or seamen, medics or marines.  Volunteers are one thing, but to force unwilling regular service members, even under questionable orders of the President, to take an experimental drug risks turning a superior military into a second-rate force.

For the Good of a Nation

Can that reasonably be construed as defending the Constitution?  The Constitution that contains the Bill of Rights which upholds the sanctity of the individual over the tyranny of the State? The Constitution which says that an individual shall be secure in their person against unjust actions of a greater power?

Consider further that it has been many years since we had a conscript military.  The draft was ended soon after the end of the Vietnam War, 50 years ago, and we have now transitioned to a volunteer military.  These servicemen and women have joined to defend our rights and liberties from our enemies, not to have their own rights stripped from them.  Gone are the days when the orders of a superior must be obeyed without question or else.

Today, a volunteer military requires the active participation of all members – members who can think for themselves and do what is needed on their own initiative.  In this participation lies the strength of our modern military.  This is the same spirit that has made our military strong from the earliest days of our own Revolution, through the times when our sea captains were authorized representatives of our country to foreign powers, to the current times of small unit actions.

These vaccine mandates affect not only the current service population, but also serve to dissuade future recruits.  Already our services have difficulty securing new recruits.  To make it obvious to potential recruits that they may be made experimental animals at the whim of command does nothing to encourage enlistment.  Persisting in a bad course because you feel it might undermine your authority means you have already lost that authority.  Respected leaders worthy of loyalty know that taking responsibility for an error and setting a new course will gain them far more than persisting in error.

Some may be inclined to see this situation as a test of wills.  They are in authority, and anyone who objects to their orders is simply being defiant, and like an authoritarian schoolmistress will enforce their will by punishing the recalcitrant student.  But they forget that forcing obedience does not crush the will, and they are simply setting the stage for something more serious later.  These people may win the battle, but will lose the war.

It is time to stand up and do the right thing.  Vaccination with a dangerous, ineffective experimental substance will not save the country, nor will it give us a stronger military nor a more secure nation.  You can only add fuel to the fire of division and destroy the finest military in the world.  Just as in Vietnam, we cannot save the village by destroying it; we can only further anger, resentment, and disunity.  Be real leaders and listen to our servicemen and women as they counsel you to a better course.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay