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Avatar & The Uniform Code of Military Justice

I have to put post this because of my military background. As Jake explains upon his arrival on Pandora, the military on Pandora are simply mercenaries defending the corporate entity that is on the planet to mine unobtainium. However, they are also there to defend Humans, whom we can correlate with Americans. They are still defending Americans, if there is an America at this time in the future. Also, the Colonel’s attitude is a carryover from his days of actual military duty. It’s clear that he has merged the two worlds in his mind; he is on Pandora not just because he loves war but because he believes in defending Americans/Humans. His comment to Jake when they square off at the end – “What’s it like to betray your own race?” – shows that he identifies Humans as a particular group to whom you should be loyal. Is this interplanetary racism on his part? Is there such a thing?

For a mercenary army defending a corporation doing business on another planet, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) would not apply unless the nation or planet sent them as an arm of the military. Because of the proliferation of contract workers in modern wars, the UCMJ, or at least statues of federal law, is now applied to some extent to contract employees, like mercenaries. But if it did, then Jake would be guilty of the rankest form of treachery. Is it justified in light of the usurpation of the Pandorans’ land? When is it right to turn against your own people or nation or planet? Jake doesn’t just feed the Pandorans information, like a spy, nor does he withdraw because he disagrees with the Humans’ methods. He actually joins the Pandorans and fights against his own people, the Human race.

The interesting parallel arises also with regard to the Western world and its conquering of native people groups around the globe. Did we dehumanize them in order to destroy or enslave them? It is a question that has been debated more in the latter part of the 20th century and in this century. Animals are not entitled to the protection of law, contrary to the animal rights advocates. Biblically, only Humans are entitled to that protection. But what about Humanoids on another planet? If the methods were somehow wrong with respect to the Western world’s subduing of primitive cultures in the 3rd world and the identification of native Humans as sub-Human was made easier by their primitive ways – lack of clothing, religious idolatry and sorceries, and less advanced culture, what would happen if we encountered another type of people on another planet? The ease of dehumanization would be much easier. would it not?

Another question that the movie raises is: When is it right to turn on your own people? I’m not saying what Jake did in the movie was right or wrong, but the bible indicates a time when nationalism becomes idolatry, when our loyalty to God must take precedence over loyalty to country. E.g., Jeremiah was called a traitor. In the historical context in which he lived, he was. He advised the king to give up to a hostile power – Babylon. He told the Israelites living in Babylon to live peacefully in Babylon and develop families and prosper. He based his position on the threats and promises of God, that if the Israelites turn from their true worship of Him, then He would turn them over to foreign powers. Jeremiah also was a prophet and knew what would happen, not only the captivity in Babylon but the people’s return after 70 years of captivity. This knowledge and position gave him confidence to stand against a people who had betrayed God and, therefore, had no grounds for calling Jeremiah a traitor, when it was he who remained true to God and His word.

Back to the movie. Was Jake like Jeremiah? No, he went much further. Jeremiah would have never joined the Babylonians and fought his own people. But had the Humans so forsaken any sort of lawful and just perspective toward the Pandorans that would justify withdrawal from the mission and harsh criticism of their actions? Most definitely. Even though the movie seems to assume a humanistic standard of ethics, by biblical standards (assuming the Pandorans were Human-like enough to make them more than animals in God’s creation), then the attempt to forcibly remove them from their land was unjust by biblical standards. What if their religion were interpreted as a false worship and full of witchcraft? Is that part of Genesis’ dominion covenant and the continued validity of the Mosaic mandate to destroy all idolatry in the land?

These questions are tough to answer. First, the Humans did not know what history of religion experienced by the Pandorans. What message had been brought to them in the past? Had God spoken to them by prophets and warned them of turning from them? If the Humans had even wanted to bring the gospel to the Pandorans, what relevance would an earth religion, even if true for the entire creation, including Pandora, have for the Pandorans? The land referred to by Moses was Palestine. None of earth’s history would matter to the Pandorans in the slightest. They lived in the world of Eywa, a fictitious world created by James Cameron to make their religion true, at least on Pandora. Thus, we can never answer these questions fully in the context of the world of Pandora. Cameron has created a box within which we must play, as the Colonel says at the beginning of the movie, by “Pandora’s rules.” But the questions raised are interesting for the modern Christian.