Wednesday, July 10, 2019

For Love Of Country

Scenes from a neighborhood fireworks display
We're 243 years along on this experiment in liberty, a little late to learn it is traitorous to take a knee in peaceful protest, or stand quietly during our anthem, or fail to wear a flag pin in our lapels, or abandon any other symbol of patriotism-on-the-cheap. We are told we disrespect our troops. "I hope you sleep well tonight, under that blanket of freedom our men and women in uniform have won for you," a man sneers, trotting out a road-tested narrative from the think tanks of our overlords.

It's repeated so often--that our brave men and women are dying for our freedom--that a huge swath of the population never stops to question it. But the undoubted courage and sacrifice of our soldiers has often been in service of anything but freedom.

The War of Independence was surely a fight for our freedom, back when we declared prematurely that all men are created equal, but successive armies were put to the task of extinguishing the Shawnee, Cherokee, and Choctaw, who, scientists now agree, were fully human even then. Certainly in the Civil War our soldiers, or half of them, fought for the freedom of slaves. Then our troops were mustered to isolate or destroy the Sioux and the Comanche, and more were sent to colonize the Philippines; and meanwhile, for the next hundred years, law enforcement in the former slave states enforced the utter subjugation of millions of people through murder and terrorism, leaving communities deprived of any property or wealth, with repercussions to this day. And even so, many of us still fly the flag of Jim Crow on our bumpers in the name of some fabled Heritage that should be our shame.

We fought the good fight in World War II, against clear evil, and then sacrificed many thousands more in dubious enterprises that have, whatever their rationales, failed to make the case for war over peace work.

And now our leaders continue to sell us endless war by insisting our brave troops are fighting for our freedom, and we're buying it. Oh, we're paying through the nose for it. Our soldiers are paying even more.

Take Cheney's War, cooked up under false pretenses, ostensibly to free the Iraqis from the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein--but then all attempts by Iraqi people to actually conduct free elections were quickly quashed by our forces under orders from an administration that saw its control of Iraqi wealth slipping away; and the rebuilding jobs, promised to citizens whose government jobs were taken away from them, were instead taken over by our soldiers, who were then supplanted by a new private mercenary army at unfathomably greater cost to US taxpayers but tremendous and ongoing profit for private firms like Halliburton and Blackwater.

Our soldiers are fighting, and building, and dying, but not for our freedom. And if I take a knee, or remain silent for our anthem, it will be for them.  Or for anyone else whose freedom is threatened by the actions of my government.

Why dredge up ancient history? This is our truth, and not so ancient. A mature nation must not pretend its way out of it, or merely press a reset button absolving us of our bloody history while we still kill for oil, and declare war on refugees and their children, and demonize the innocent, and incinerate our gorgeous planet for money.

And yet now we are being told that we should not trouble ourselves over these issues, that the patriotic thing to do is cheer and lay ourselves out to be fleeced and continue to send in our brave sons and daughters to be sacrificed for someone else's profit. That to do anything else is to disrespect our troops. No. I respectfully disagree.

There is a reason to glorify our bloated military, to declare it a sign of our strength rather than a failure of our ideals. And that reason is to baffle and bluster us into believing everything we do is for the good, and to distract us from the sins committed in our names. To say: look at these shiny jets, and this procession of armored codpieces-on-a-track, and don't look over there at the war profiteers' growing treasure, and the death and deception that feed it.

But we are a government of, by, and for the people, and anything our leaders do is done in our name, whether it is genocide, or enslavement, or pursuit of the happiness of CEOs at the expense of entire nations. We protest out of love for our nation and its highest ideals. We cannot simply climb aboard the Good Ship America and glide toward our lofty destiny. We stutter and stall and tack toward it at best, and we need all hands on deck.

But we still believe in our path and principles, and it is our highest patriotic calling to keep fighting to form a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all. All.

34 comments:

  1. Here, here! We'll keep fighting the good fight until we get rid of the scourge on our country. It may take a while.

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    1. That's one of the problems. We're out of time.

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  2. As a vet (Vietnam, where we lost 50K and killed millions for a discredited domino theory) I completely agree with you. Well said.

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    1. We at least started out with an idea but the whole thing quickly became its own excuse. Glad you made it through. (I won't say "unscathed.")

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  3. BTW - This should be published somewhere other than on Blogger - it (and you) need a larger audience. Personally I'm putting a link to this on my FB page. It needs to be shared!

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    1. Thank you. I hope you get to see a link button. It seems to be permanently off my own screen but I'm told it reappears elsewhere. I have to copy and paste old-school to make a link!

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  4. I'm oh so tired of the 'we're a young country' excuse for every amoral, corrupt, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist, etc. action taken in the name of liberty and freedom for all.

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    1. We're like the old lady slathering on her makeup and insisting she's still in her forties.

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    2. " The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years. To hear them talk one would imagine they were in their first childhood. As far as civilisation goes they are in their second." -- Oscar Wilde

      He always says it best.
      ​

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    3. I hate to say that I just went on a search to see how Oscar Wilde died, but I wanted to make sure he wasn't...disappeared.

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  5. As a 22 year Army retiree,I believe you have spoken truth. I still have a soft spot in my heart for "my soldiers".I was a cook and mess sergeant, and rather attached to keeping them alive. I see them being used to enrich the wealthy, and it burns me up. Sharing.

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    1. Thanks for your perspective (and your service).

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  6. YES.
    And those serving in the armed forces are human, and subject to human frailities. Some of them do horrendous things and shouldn't get a 'get out of jail free' card because of their profession. But neither should those who send them to war.

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    1. I would love to require every warmonger in this world and their corporate cheerleaders to engage in a cage fight (winner gets to eat loser) and leave the rest of us alone.

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  7. OK. Send this to the NYT. You have concisely and eloquently exposed it all.

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    1. Thanks. NYT doesn't really prefer these generalized screeds, I don't think.

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  8. Those in power often do not have the character, morals or ethics needed to use that power wisely. Unfortunately, those in power are the ones who decide to send others to battle. Centuries ago, leaders considered it their responsibility to lead the charge when fighting. Ya sure wouldn't see that these days.

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    1. They'd have to get a big ol' draft horse! I was also pondering whether it would make a difference if we had a working draft now.

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  9. YES! Sharing on Facebook! And sending to friends & family who aren't on FB.

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  10. Wonderful! Just wonderful. And the picture of Pooty is perfect.

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    1. It's an oldy but goody. Fact is, he's just a dang good-lookin' dog.

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  11. Well written.
    I sent a letter to my draft board back in 1967 saying that though I believed some wars were justified, the Vietnam War was not, and I could not fight in it. Oddly, perhaps because Arlington may have had all the recruitees they needed, they accepted my arguments. I was made eligible for the draft, but only for non-violent efforts.
    My highish "draft lottery number" made all of that irrelevant.
    But I still support the idea that not all declared wars of this nation are ones for which Pooty and I should risk our lives.

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    1. YOU DID? THEY DID? Dave (here in Portland, and a year later) applied for conscientious objector, and they weren't having any of it. What got him out was evidence of kidney failure. It turned out it was "posture hypertension" that spilled excess albumen into his system, mimicking kidney failure, but it held true for several tests.

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  12. ALL, not just a select few. I wish I could voice these things half as well as you do.
    My own country isn't exactly blame-free either.

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    1. It's tough all over and always has been. I'd like to think we can overcome some day.

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  13. Oh Murr. I can't count the times you've made me laugh, but today you've made me cry. Thanks for this lovely plea for sanity in an increasingly insane world.

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