As our leaders, media, and propagandists try to guilt trip us into
remembering and appreciating veterans this season (they bled so we can
BBQ - which is just a silly claim all around), let's also remember how
stupid some of our leaders were in getting us into and mismanaging
certain wars. Many paid the ultimate price for the mistakes of a few.
Each year when the president lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, they should also burn a past leader in effigy (plenty to choose
from: Nixon, Bush, Cheney, Westmoreland, Custer, MacArthur, etc.).
In
the vain pursuit of glory, power, legacy, etc., they eagerly put pen to
paper (with little care about consequences and how to care for the
wounded after the war), and changed the fates of millions of families -
usually for the worse. At least in the olden days, the "best and
brightest" would offer their sons to the military as noblesse oblige and
expectations of their class. But with the advent of industrialized
warfare where anyone could be killed suddenly (and en masse) by flying
hot metal, all that changed. And with global capitalism, the powerful
could grow their empires commercially, making physical conquest (and all
its risks) obsolete. The 1% sent their kids to the Ivy League as the
future champions of industry/politics, and the poor did the fighting and
dying instead."My younger brother, a Vietnam vet, recently died. He was haunted to the end by memories of what he witnessed in the war and of "well-meaning" friends and relatives who called him a baby killer when he returned.
Now, my grandson is fighting to recover from PTSD, hearing loss, and memories of what he witnessed during 3 tours in Iraq.
Will it never end?"
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