The power of Words – Vows, Compacts, Covenants

My wife, Remi Messenger, keeps a cutting about the Iraq War, which describes a decision of the Rumsfeld-Bush Administration, she finds especially galling.
It is about the Vow the soldier takes on joining the US Army.
Called the Soldier’s Creed, the Vow used to be:-

“I am an American soldier,
No matter what situation I am in,
I will never do anything for pleasure,
profit or personal safety,
which will disgrace my uniform.
I will use every means I have,
Even beyond the line of duty
To restrain my army comrades
From actions disgraceful
To themselves and the uniform.”

Army research and intelligence concludes that this vow inspired soldiers and marines, even in a hostile occupation, to be patient, confidence-building, and winners of hearts and minds. As well as the “necessary warfare”, it also led to building roads and bridges, and forging links with tribal and community leaders.
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But this was not good to the “shock and awe” mentality of Rumsfeld and Bush.
They changed the Vow to a “stirring” one called the Warrior Ethos, the wording of which is as follows: -

“ I am an American Soldier
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I stand ready to deploy
Engage and destroy,
the enemies of the United States of America
in close combat.”

With predictable results.

Such is the power of the Vow.

(The original story was from the Sunday Times of London. My wife’s copy was from the The Australian of Sept 25, 06, p.11)

Mr Kerlin and Mr D’Arcy

News came to me last week (Nov 06) in New York of the tragic death of Queensland police officer Stewart Kerlin. It is sad to hear of anyone having their life cut short by such an horrendous circumstance.
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But I wonder too if Officer Kerlin was not a victim in other ways. I was distressed to hear of reports by private detectives of the practice of “trawling” by the Argos Task Force (Queensland Police. In plain language, this means that police set out to get a conviction by ignoring all favourable reports of the suspect, and only searching out those items of evidence, which are unfavourable.
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The Revelation of “trawling” in Great Britain and elsewhere has led to the overturning of many false convictions, especially in sexual crimes/allegations of the “Recovered Memory” kind.
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I attended one of the trials of William Theodore (Bill) D’Arcy, in which Officer Kerlin gave evidence. One of D’Arcy’s barristers wanted to cross-examine Kerlin about the trawling practices of the Argos Task Force. Judge O’Brien would not allow the questioning! I wrote a respectful letter to Judge O’Brien asking why he did this. He did not reply.
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Maybe he is not allowed to.

Mr Rivera and Mr D'Arcy

Yesterday in the New York Times (15Nov 06) I read about Mr Joshua Rivera who is doing a long sentence for murder. But now a great deal of evidence has come forward which exonerates him.

The system is the same in as In Australia. Once someone is found guilty, and then later evidence emerges that a grave miscarriage of justice has occured, the system does not like to admit that it is wrong - and they keep the person in Jail as long as they can.

This is what has happened to William Theodore (Bill) D'Arcy in Australia (Photo above with his wife and daughters). Much evidence has emerged , including evidence of perjury. There are also 15 items of evidence, which proves Bill D'Arcy left the school where the indictable offence was supposed to have occured nearly a year previously. There are many other indicators of his innocence - but in jail he stays.