sundialsvcs |
10-10-2013 09:21 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by k3lt01
(Post 5043230)
I'm sure Americans are grateful but lets remember that more than American citizens have taken part in this thread and saying we indicates everyone. I for one am not grateful, their service does nothing for me and America's penchant for war has put many people, not only its own citizens, at risk.
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Believe me, I hear exactly what you are saying ... and I daresay that a whole lot of American soldiers do, too.
"America's penchant for war" has always been the problem, especially given that it is often done for business reasons. There are plenty of examples of it, too: - The Spanish-American War ("Remember the Maine"!) was basically started and ended as a distraction.
- "War is a Racket!" Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, the most-decorated American officer at the start of the 20th century, very eloquently and forcefully said that.
- "The Military Industrial Complex." 'Ike' Eisenhower's coined phrase.
- "Mission Accomplished." By the most foolish of the fools.
- "Generals don't start wars ... politicians do." Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
- ... and it is a list that never ends ...
All of this says nothing of the "grunts on the ground," who see it as their national duty to obey the orders that are given to them by their respective governments. They're the ones who are really left at the end of the stick, their bodies often half blown-apart. I think it's okay to acknowledge their service.
It has always been the case that people, who kept themselves most-carefully out of any harm's way, pursue war because there is money in it. Vast, indeed unthinkable, amounts of "top secret" money. And this is what I think we need to acknowledge, and to refuse to accept, and to fight against.
I'm an American citizen. Yes, I am. But don't think "for a New York minute," as the song says, that I endorse what my government is doing, or fail to perceive its dreadful cost both here and abroad.
"There's no such thing as a 'winnable' war. It's a lie we don't believe anymore." -- Sting, "The Russians"
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