“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Memorial Day is more than just a long weekend
For a lot of the men and women we've lost at one war or another over the years, there is a kid like this left at home. Try to take a minute to remember that as you stuff your face with ribs, potato salad, and beer.
13 comments:
Bill
said...
Good point, Ed.
I get exasperated when the media treat Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, and Veterans Day as interchangeable. Their names clearly denote whom they're supposed to honor.
I get exasperated when people glorify soldiers and war.
Most wars are state sanctioned murder and the military, pure and simple, are hired gunslingers who have drunk the Kool-Aid that killing olive, brown and yellow-skinned foreigners is noble and good. It isn't.
90% of all deaths in war are civilians and the U.S. has launched 201 of the 248 armed conflicts since the end of WWII [81%]. We are war-mongering bastards.
First of all, it's the kids like this one I was pointing to, Isaac.
And second, and my military memory isn't the best and I'll accept any additions you can name, but the Iraq war is the only "conflict" we started. Most were to rid the region of a bad person, police ethnic cleansing, halt the march of communism, or otherwise protect a defenseless nation from an aggressive neighbor. Obviously, all these reasons to invade another nation are debatable, but it can't be claimed that we started them all.
TITLE: The Role of Public Health in the Prevention of War: Rationale and Competencies
AUTHORS: William H. Wiist, DHSc, MPH, MS, Kathy Barker, PhD, Neil Arya, MD, Jon Rohde, MD, Martin Donohoe, MD, Shelley White, PhD, MPH, Pauline Lubens, MPH, Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD, and Amy Hagopian, PhD
(American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 104, No. 6, June 2014: e34-e47.)
EXCERPT: “Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq. During the 20th century, 190 million deaths could be directly and indirectly related to war — more than in the previous 4 centuries.”
Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July, Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.
Those who lose family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.
The speeches are well-intentioned, but the speeches create a false reality that supports ever more wars. None of America’s wars had anything to do with keeping America free. To the contrary, the wars swept away our civil liberties, making us unfree.
President Lincoln issued an executive order for the arrest and imprisonment of northern newspaper reporters and editors. He shut down 300 northern newspapers and held 14,000 political prisoners. Lincoln arrested war critic US Representative Clement Vallandigham from Ohio and exiled him to the Confederacy. President Woodrow Wilson used WWI to suppress free speech, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt used WWII to intern 120,000 US citizens of Japanese descent on the grounds that race made them suspect. Professor Samuel Walker concluded that President George W. Bush used the “war on terror” for an across the board assault on US civil liberty, making the Bush regime the greatest danger American liberty has ever faced.
(Remainder of article available at http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/why-war-is-inevitable-paul-craig-roberts/.)
“In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States 'is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.' Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.”
With modern transportation, anyone can get to almost any country on Earth in 2 or 3 flights. Some of them will take defectors. Russia, China, N Korea, Venezuela.
Isaac, regardless of the genesis of the fighting or your disagreement with it, the US has liberated more people from the grips of oppression, bondage, and tyranny than all other countries combined.
Has there been collateral casualties on both sides, sure and that certainly lessens the accomplishments, but over all, I think we and the countries we've liberated have come out to the good.
I'll give you our recent misadventures in the middle east.....Libya, Iraq, Egypt, and Afghanistan, but few of our forays into foreign lands have resulted in net negatives.
Regardless of your opinion of our foreign policies, the soldiers who did the fighting didn't make those decisions. They did their jobs honorably for the most part and should be commended for that.
Al Capone's gunnels did their jobs well, too. they should be commended for that.
(“As Americans celebrate the Memorial Day holiday, we should remember that though the VA’s alleged abuse and neglect of US veterans is scandalous, the worse abuse comes from a president and a compliant Congress that send the US military to cause harm and be harmed overseas in undeclared, unnecessary, and illegal interventions.”
~Ron Paul, “The VA Scandal is Just the Tip of the Military Abuse Iceberg”, 05/27/2014)
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I have an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army and I am a graduate of the D.C. National Guard Officer Candidate School
I actually pretty much agree with Ron Paul's assessment of the abuse of the US military by the civilian-led government. We are far too quick to jump into the affairs of other nations, invited or not, it's almost always a bad idea.
Our media whip up public sympathy for the plight of the children and women of these shit-hole countries and our politicians, ever mindful of the political winds, rush to the saviors so they can crow about it in the next election.
I get all that and agree with most of it.
We have to have a volunteer military, it has to be civilian commanded, and soldiers have to follow lawful orders, therefore, the politicians are to blame, not the guys who do as they're told and get killed doing it.
You probably knew that I am retired from the Georgia Air Nat'l Guard. This is why I defend our recognition of dead soldiers....not their missions, but their loyalty, dedication, and sacrifice.
13 comments:
Good point, Ed.
I get exasperated when the media treat Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, and Veterans Day as interchangeable. Their names clearly denote whom they're supposed to honor.
I get exasperated when people glorify soldiers and war.
Most wars are state sanctioned murder and the military, pure and simple, are hired gunslingers who have drunk the Kool-Aid that killing olive, brown and yellow-skinned foreigners is noble and good. It isn't.
90% of all deaths in war are civilians and the U.S. has launched 201 of the 248 armed conflicts since the end of WWII [81%]. We are war-mongering bastards.
Memorialize that.
First of all, it's the kids like this one I was pointing to, Isaac.
And second, and my military memory isn't the best and I'll accept any additions you can name, but the Iraq war is the only "conflict" we started. Most were to rid the region of a bad person, police ethnic cleansing, halt the march of communism, or otherwise protect a defenseless nation from an aggressive neighbor. Obviously, all these reasons to invade another nation are debatable, but it can't be claimed that we started them all.
1) "First of all, it's the kids like this one I was pointing to...."
Why are there kids like this one? Because we send their dads and moms off to kill and be killed for disingenuous, trumped up reasons.
2) In reality you don't give a shit about kids like this one because if you did you would fight American war-mongering tooth and nail.
3) "...it can't be claimed that we started them all."
The June 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health says differently.
Ed, you really take this guy seriously?
This guy? Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?
TITLE: The Role of Public Health in the Prevention of War: Rationale and Competencies
AUTHORS: William H. Wiist, DHSc, MPH, MS, Kathy Barker, PhD, Neil Arya, MD, Jon Rohde, MD, Martin Donohoe, MD, Shelley White, PhD, MPH, Pauline Lubens, MPH, Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD, and Amy Hagopian, PhD
(American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 104, No. 6, June 2014: e34-e47.)
EXCERPT: “Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq. During the 20th century, 190 million deaths could be directly and indirectly related to war — more than in the previous 4 centuries.”
Why War Is Inevitable
by Paul Craig Roberts
Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July, Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.
Those who lose family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.
The speeches are well-intentioned, but the speeches create a false reality that supports ever more wars. None of America’s wars had anything to do with keeping America free. To the contrary, the wars swept away our civil liberties, making us unfree.
President Lincoln issued an executive order for the arrest and imprisonment of northern newspaper reporters and editors. He shut down 300 northern newspapers and held 14,000 political prisoners. Lincoln arrested war critic US Representative Clement Vallandigham from Ohio and exiled him to the Confederacy. President Woodrow Wilson used WWI to suppress free speech, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt used WWII to intern 120,000 US citizens of Japanese descent on the grounds that race made them suspect. Professor Samuel Walker concluded that President George W. Bush used the “war on terror” for an across the board assault on US civil liberty, making the Bush regime the greatest danger American liberty has ever faced.
(Remainder of article available at http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/why-war-is-inevitable-paul-craig-roberts/.)
“In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States 'is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.' Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.”
(source: http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-poll-biggest-threat-world-peace-america-1525008)
With modern transportation, anyone can get to almost any country on Earth in 2 or 3 flights. Some of them will take defectors. Russia, China, N Korea, Venezuela.
Isaac, regardless of the genesis of the fighting or your disagreement with it, the US has liberated more people from the grips of oppression, bondage, and tyranny than all other countries combined.
Has there been collateral casualties on both sides, sure and that certainly lessens the accomplishments, but over all, I think we and the countries we've liberated have come out to the good.
I'll give you our recent misadventures in the middle east.....Libya, Iraq, Egypt, and Afghanistan, but few of our forays into foreign lands have resulted in net negatives.
Regardless of your opinion of our foreign policies, the soldiers who did the fighting didn't make those decisions. They did their jobs honorably for the most part and should be commended for that.
Al Capone's gunnels did their jobs well, too. they should be commended for that.
(“As Americans celebrate the Memorial Day holiday, we should remember that though the VA’s alleged abuse and neglect of US veterans is scandalous, the worse abuse comes from a president and a compliant Congress that send the US military to cause harm and be harmed overseas in undeclared, unnecessary, and illegal interventions.”
~Ron Paul, “The VA Scandal is Just the Tip of the Military Abuse Iceberg”, 05/27/2014)
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I have an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army and I am a graduate of the D.C. National Guard Officer Candidate School
I actually pretty much agree with Ron Paul's assessment of the abuse of the US military by the civilian-led government. We are far too quick to jump into the affairs of other nations, invited or not, it's almost always a bad idea.
Our media whip up public sympathy for the plight of the children and women of these shit-hole countries and our politicians, ever mindful of the political winds, rush to the saviors so they can crow about it in the next election.
I get all that and agree with most of it.
We have to have a volunteer military, it has to be civilian commanded, and soldiers have to follow lawful orders, therefore, the politicians are to blame, not the guys who do as they're told and get killed doing it.
You probably knew that I am retired from the Georgia Air Nat'l Guard. This is why I defend our recognition of dead soldiers....not their missions, but their loyalty, dedication, and sacrifice.
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