US Airforce Requires Soldiers to Say in Their Enlistment Oaths 'So Help Me God'

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/michaelweinstein/us-airforce-requires-soldiers-say-their-enlistment-oaths-so-help-me-god



Let's perform a quick exercise here. Imagine that you're just walking into work on a Monday morning and your manager wants to talk to you. Thanking you for the fine work you've been doing up until this point, your manager informs you that your reliability is in question – along with your continued success, and very future, at the company. In fact, you learn, management suspects that you're a vain, wishy-washy, and rather empty-headed member of the team who's undeserving of trust. Bewildered at the sudden questioning of your integrity, your boss tells you that you can turn it all around, regain trust, and continue your workday after placing your hand on a leather-bound religious book and stating a simple oath along the lines of "There is no god but Allah," or "I Accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior."

Surely this nightmare is the product of some far-flung, back-water and oppressed land, right? ISIS territory, perhaps? That could never happen in the United States, the beacon of religious freedom and human rights. . . or could it?

Regrettably, this truly horrific scenario is indeed the case within the United States Air Force (USAF). Just the other day, the USAF public affairs office at the Pentagon informed the world that "Reciting 'So help me God' in its official reenlistment and commissioning oaths is a statutory requirement under 10 U.S.C. §502". In short, you had better repent and swear your oath to "God" or be gone. Interestingly, that just cited U.S. Code provision (which the Air Force is pathetically using to support its "sorry, our hands are tied" position of abject cowardice here) also makes it clear that armed forces members may "affirm", in lieu of swearing, this enlistment or commissioning oath. When one "affirms" such an oath of office, there is NO need to "swear" to "God" to do so. Such is the very distinction between "swearing and affirming." 10 U.S.C. §502 allows either to be done by the enlisting or commissioning Air Force member. The USAF's transparent duplicity and specious motivations for basing its new decision to force service members to swear to God are dangerous, disingenuous and despicable.

One airman based at Creech Air Force base in Nevada learned about this renewed religious requirement the hard way. He was informed that unless he speaks and signs the religious oath, his days as an airman are through. " So help me God" isn't optional anymore. It is now a basic condition of Air Force enlistment.

[intaglio]

1. Well, If they end up flying the F-35

They're going to need all the help they can get! Even magic spells.

[xchrom]

2. !

[pinboy3niner]

3. ...