Should Military Personnel Receive Extra Rights GP week 2 Essay

Should Military Personnel Receive Extra Rights GP week 2 - Essay Example As a result, the military should not be any different from civilians in their rights, including drinking, if the crimes in our society are to be prevented and punished. Soldiers have almost the same civil rights as civilians. The Congress passed civil rights laws ensuring that soldiers’ civil rights are no different from those of civilians. Moreover, as any civilian, a soldier is entitled to an attorney, marriage, voting, inheritance and several other rights. However, unlike civilians, soldiers are not allowed to run for office, be it partisan or nonpartisan, especially if it conflicts with their duties (Globalsecurity.org, 2012). There are arguments that soldiers should in fact have more rights. They have more duties. As a result, one could argue that soldiers too could be allotted some additional rights. In 2010, there was a discussion in the Congress that drinking age should be returned to 18 for soldiers. The argument was that if they are considered adults enough to die for their country, then they can be adults with a beer in their hand too, regardless of the fact that alcohol caused over 25,000 deaths in 2009 (Bishop, 2010; Kochanek et al., 2011, p.11). The bill was rejected. Historically, there was a way for soldiers to become immune in front of the court – martial. Such example was in Hirshberg v. Cooke (1949), where a soldier was in captivity by the Japanese (Everett, 1960, p.373). He was released, discharged from the Navy and then reenlisted the following day (Everett, 1960, p.373). However, when his crimes against other captives were discovered, the court – martial could not try him under another enlistment. He was set free. Another important case is of two Special Forces units who murdered and disposed of a third member (Everett, 1960, p.373). They were out of the military when their crimes were discovered. However, civilian courts could not try them, and since