This is being noted a day late, but it makes some good points — Why doesn’t the US observe Armistice Day? We’re more comfortable with war than peace.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
This is being noted a day late, but it makes some good points — Why doesn’t the US observe Armistice Day? We’re more comfortable with war than peace.
Yup.
Ever since The Spanish-American War, we’ve had troops somewhere – ostensibly, to help “keep the peace.”
More like, to help feed our Military Industrial Complex.
Thanks to our foreign policies, we’ve had generations of “Daddy Warbucks” – helping to make more and more Lil’ Orphan Annie’s.
I always cringe whenever I hear “Thank you for your service” as if by saying that one is relieved of all guilt and responsibility for sending them. And as if that is the only way to serve one’s country or humanity. Also, I dislike hearing “they died protecting the freedoms we enjoy”. Not true, they died because someone in power was having warorgasms. Another habit that is becoming annoying is when the President ends every speech with “God bless America”. Is this supposed to encourage patriotism or celebrate our “exceptionalism”? Why not say “God bless the human race”? We certainly need it. I don’t know how to do links but a worthy read is Putin’s speech at the Valdai Club. It’s lengthy but very interesting.. Go to Valdaiclub.com. OK, now veteran’s day is over and we can look forward to Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
I’m not usually this crabby but it’s COLD here.
It’s kind of redundant too, since we also have Memorial Day. I guess Memorial Day would be the for the deceased veterans, and Veterans Day is for the ones who are still alive?
Of course, if we want to do something for our living veterans besides setting aside one day a year to say nice things about them, there are a lot of possibilities. A lot of them could use some help.
@grannyeagle – I think that speech by Putin you mentioned is here. I agree, it’s worth reading…
The right-wing emphasis on militarism is insidious and widespread in our culture and is sickening. It leads to corruption of holidays like Armistice Day. The sad thing is that, on the face of it, it’s the only thing this country does well these days. It’s a jobs program, the only real way for many young people to advance in their lives, and who doesn’t feel a bit good for someone who has used a stint in the military to pull themselves up?
The sad realization is that most people in this country want war, or at least are so dulled by living in this culture that they don’t care.
I can’t go to airshows because of this; and I have turned down invitations from others to put together care packages for soldiers overseas – despite my sympathy for their situation – simply because I am not willing to get with the culture’s program on this.
When we invaded Iraq in 2003, I seriously explored war resistance, basically not paying my taxes. That’s when it gets serious, when you deny the machine the money it needs to survive. Until you get to that point, and are willing to cross that line and risk going to jail for your beliefs, all of what I’ve written above is just a lot of nice hand-wringing and nothing more.
PS – grannyeagle, you should learn how to do links, your comments are among the best on this blog. This is a pretty concise tutorial.
Every veteran’s day, I think of sting’s song “the children’s crusade” and try to digest how so many were ordered to charge the enemy in human waves that were hopeless. That war to end all wars gave rise to Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. World war 1 changed the face of the geopolitical structure, redrew maps, broke empires, and killed over 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians. Memories are short with the human race. George Carlin said we like war, we’re a warlike people. George was right about many things.
Moonbat: Yes, that is the speech I was referring to. And thanks for the link to learning how to do links. I will work on it although it appears it is going to strain my brain. Sometimes it is a hassle to be old but there are a lot of perks too.
Are we headed towards WWIII? I just finished reading “A New Cold War” by John Hogue. He is an expert on Nostradamus who he claims predicted a third world war along with another guy named Stormberger. The only prophet who said there will be no WWIII was Edgar Cayce. Incidentally, Cayce also said Russia will be the hope of the world.
I guess there’s no time for Armistice Day what with all the Veteran’s Day stuff. It’s a pity we can’t do both.
“Veterans Day is for the ones who are still alive?”
Oh no I think veterans day is just another opportunity to put some poor bastard with an IED disability on display and then go to commercial. I was having lunch yesterday at a local I-beef joint and ESPN had this elaborate show about vets who got fucked up in Afghanistan and Iraq, the whole show was sponsored and they ran a commercial every 3 minutes, it was the most shameful thing I’ve ever seen, talk about exploitation I’ve had more than a few well intentioned folks thank me for my service; I say no thanks needed uncle-sam paid me the entire time!
War Is A Racket
A speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
Smedley Butler
WAR is a racket. It always has been
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations …
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm
Gen. Butler was a career Marine officer, active duty combat from China to the banana wars retiring after WWI. It was then that he became an anti-war activist – he’s a fascinating figure who is overlooked by history.
Well, I don’t thank anyone for their military service, but I do acknowledge a fellow veteran’s service for whatever it means to them. I do think that once they changed to an all volunteer force, military service did kinda morph into a glorified jobs program.
Here’s a little something that might piss somebody off… 🙂
“For those who have fought for it, Freedom has a taste that the protected will never know.”
One of the things I thought was kind of bizarre was when the Army was issuing moral waivers in order to scrounge up some IED fodder for when Bush’s Iraq invasion started to go south. I mean, really, if you got caught and convicted of fiddling with yourself in a public park or playground the military would look the other way in deciding whether you were fit to be among their ranks. I think that’s what they call lowering the bar and it doesn’t speak well for the concept of an all volunteer force. Well, maybe not the concept over all, but it did point out some flaws in the concept.
Speaking of a volunteer force, what about the dogs who are drafted into service. They also experience PTSD and sometimes sacrifice their lives. IMHO, this is animal cruelty. Dogs are very trusting and loyal companions and it is abuse to force them into participating in man’s folly. They look to humans to take care of and protect them. To do otherwise is betrayal.
Gen. Butler is not the only veteran who finally realized the horrors of war. Paul Chappell has written some books about his theories of how we can end war. Two I can recommend are “Will war ever end?” and “Peaceful Revolution”.
” I think that’s what they call lowering the bar”
We’ll yeah, they needed some bodies and they needed them fast, Cheney and Rumsfeld’s thirst for young American blood needed to be quenched! I enlisted in the Army in 1982 I believe that was the last year you could get in with legal problems and without a high school diploma, all that went out the window with Bu$hco!
@grannyeagle – I am familiar with Edgar Cayce. I don’t know about being the hope of the world, but IMO with global warming, Siberia with its vast resources will open up. If I was a lot younger, and knew Russian, I would consider moving there, despite the wild west lawlessness. Also, see the Anastasia books – they are extraodinarily popular in Russia, rekindling an interest in ancient Russian spirituality, which derives from India.
Not only Siberia, but the former soviet central Asian republics. Vast mineral wealth and many young people hungry for progress. I believe Putin is one of the top 10 wealthiest persons on the planet. The next several decades should be interesting.
Isn’t it Remembrance Day in Canada?