A Soldier's Job is Not to Think

The following story is made possible by the team behind Breaking Brainwashed.

When I was in the army, I had a corporal brother whom I looked up to like a teacher. We were both stationed at the headquarters of our company.

At that time, he treated me more like a little brother than a student, and taught me everything I didn't know. He had almost 17 years of military experience, and would often regale me with stories of his battles.

But when the military coup happened and the army began killing protesters, I encouraged my teacher to join the CDM. He refused, telling me that a soldier must obey orders and not think too much. "This will all pass in due time," he said.

I didn't agree with him, but I didn't argue. My teacher wasn't one to bully me, but I knew he could get angry if I pushed him too hard. Plus, he had always been generous to me, even paying for my wedding despite his own salary not being very high.

One day, I asked him, "Sir, if we go to the front lines, are we not allowed any rest time or time to sit in the back row?" He responded, "A soldier is one who is constantly busy with work and has no room for other thoughts. You'll understand when you become a soldier."

I'm not sure if his answer was right or wrong, but I do know that the army does seem to expect us to have no rest time and to always be on our feet. Maybe it's to prevent us from thinking about anything else.

Even when we didn't need to, we were sometimes ordered to cut down bamboo for no reason. The bamboo we were forced to chop down was infested with lice because it had been left piled up on a pole. The army just kept issuing orders, no matter how nonsensical they seemed.

It's clear that the military doesn't really care about its subordinate soldiers. They just want us to follow orders blindly. But even if we set aside our own thoughts and try to repair the damaged reputation of the army, the people's hatred cannot be so easily assuaged.

So let's leave this broken organization behind and strive to be members of the military who truly love and respect it. And let's not let the habit of blindly obeying orders become ingrained in us.