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No Hope for Change This Veterans Day When I visited the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial earlier this year, I was overcome with a deep sadness. Never in my life have I been emotionally affected by simply visiting a place, and I would never have anticipated I would react as I did. But there I found myself in tears as I walked along the lit wall that night with two friends, deeply affected by the over 58,000 inscribed names of American men and women who needlessly died in Vietnam. And the sadness continues as I realize that the U.S. government has learned nothing from Korea or Vietnam. But, once again on Veterans Day, the president will affect a manner of respectful solemnity as he addresses the American people and world, doing the job our "leaders" excel at: manipulating the emotions of the people with deception so that they equate needless conflicts with defense of America. Prepare to hear words from the White House utterly void of sincerity and meaning. Bush will again mouth words of peace, and heap praise and honor upon those who have fallen or have been wounded in military service in years past and present. But I do not believe Bush will be truthful in any of the fine words he speaks today, for his actions have spoken louder than any words he could possibly say. The same goes for past presidents on this day of remembrance, whom voiced the sentiments of empathy, yet whose deeds were the cause of the death and suffering they would have us believe they feel sympathy for. Bush will likely speak of all those who have risked their lives "for our freedoms," those who have fought "the enemy, " and "served our country." He will speak of all his administration has done to help the wounded and even the homeless among our veterans. He will reverently speak of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. But what he will not do is take responsibility for forcing those in the military to serve him and his whims rather than national security. Bush is the one with blood on his hands, and his speech on Veterans Day does not wipe them clean in the eyes of America or the world. He will speak of the current struggle of which he will mean his "war on terror." It will not be the real struggle: a nation grappling with the realization that our military men and women are not dying protecting our nation. Americans are a people slowly acknowledging that our military men and women are merely pawns to be slaughtered in a game, a deadly political game of geopolitical control of resources which has nothing to do with preserving the freedom of this nation. Americans are beginning to stop their blind acceptance of lies from the White House, and instead are seeing the truth: this government places its power over other sovereign nations and control of their resources above the lives of its military. It is a government which calculatingly uses the cause of "national security" to enrich themselves and subjugate others. Bush will likely claim that war came to our shores on Sept. 11, 2001, when in reality no war came here. What we suffered was a relatively small retaliation for the death and destruction the U.S. government has dealt the world and its citizens, and for which some vengeful criminals decided to seek retribution for by committing their heinous act of murder upon our innocent citizens. Unjustified and evil as that attack was, Bush will fail to mention that the original and continued aggressor in his "war on terror" is the United States with its over 700 bases in some 130 nations. Such militarism and empire building has nothing whatsoever to do with "security" but with conquest. It is the primary cause of the hatred expressed toward us. Bush may speak of al Qaeda, perhaps of "Islamo-fascism," and others he will accuse of brutality, while contrasting their ideology with a vision he claims to have of peace, liberty, prosperity. But the U.S. government differs not from those extremist groups who use violence to further their causes, for ours is a government which also uses unjustified violence or the intimidating threat thereof to advance its agenda. He may speak of such groups as wanting to end our influence in the Middle East - and on that one he's right. Of course they want to end our influence, because we have no right to be there as a military force. Bush will likely conclude his Veterans Day address defending his actions as heroic and freedom-loving, straining to correlate the natural American empathy for our veterans into an empathy for him and his policies. He will likely use God's name repeatedly for blessings upon our veterans and our nation, forgetting that blessings of the God he self-righteously speaks of are said to be bestowed upon those who are faithful to his Word, of which not killing innocent people is fundamental. Veterans Day has always been a day of significance to me; a day in which I express and feel gratitude to those who have served in the past for righteousness sake. Many of those who have served have done so for the best of reasons and intentions, hoping it was indeed for freedom, and this is what makes our government's misuse of the military so disgusting. Those who would exploit people's lives for their gain are those with the power in this nation. This government kills indiscriminately, using deception and fear, to justify its actions regardless of the civilian deaths it causes. The United States, thanks to its government, has become like the rogue states it takes pride in condemning. Our military is not used to defend our freedom any longer, it is used to enforce an evil interventionist foreign policy. Veterans from our current unjustified military operations are responsible as well. One cannot escape personal responsibility for the evil one does simply because they wear a uniform while committing it. One of conscience refuses to participate in actions they know to be wrong. And being part of the invading occupying force is wrong. The collective a soldier is part of, whether they consider it the military or the government which controls it, does not absolve one of the personal responsibility for those they unjustifiably harmed. Do not be in denial this Veterans Day. Lest we forget or conveniently ignore, it is estimated that upwards of 88,000 (estimates vary but there is no dispute the deaths are in the tens of thousands if not more) Iraqi civilians are dead due to the violence our military has perpetrated. Then there are the thousands of civilians killed from US air strikes in Afghanistan beginning in 2001, and the hundreds or thousands more dead in the years since. Are such innocent civilians killed by our missiles and bombs just "collateral damage" or are they tragedies to be mourned? As far as I'm concerned, all deaths resulting from US imperialism are a tragic waste of human life. To get a feel for just how many US troops and bases we have (officially) worldwide, take a look at this map. These bases are maintained solely for U.S. dominance. But I do believe this empire will eventually end. The choice is between ending it voluntarily by choosing peace and bringing our troops home from all over the world, or its demise out of necessity from economic and human suffering in America. Unfortunately, it appears it will be the latter way. Meanwhile, as the recruiters hit our campuses looking for more bodies for the nation's largest employer ,The Department of Defense, others, too, are recruited worldwide to defend the sovereignty of their nations. And to the glee of the U.S. government, their "war on terror" continues. A respectful commemoration of Veterans Day would be one in which Bush of course recognized those who have truly died and suffered for our freedom, and it would require an apology to those veterans (and their families) whose lives were risked and sacrificed not for freedom but who were put into a situation in which they must choose between obeying orders or being persecuted with prosecution if they refused to participate in unconstitutional wars. And an apology for the needless deaths and the dire suffering and destruction wrought worldwide which the U.S. government is responsible for would certainly be in order as well. As loved ones of husbands, wives, sons, daughters, grandparents and other family and friends are remembered this Veterans Day, and as thousands of veterans suffer from horrible physical, mental and emotional anguish from their military service, I have no hope that one year from now that more American men and women will not have been lost and suffered life changing injuries - sadly not in defense of freedom - but for an immoral and unethical political agenda of empire building. I am glad this will be one of the last addresses Bush gives as president. Good riddance. But I have no illusions. To avoid collapse of America as we know it, changes to foreign policy should be immediate - not gradual. As a libertarian, I oppose the use of the US military for so called peacekeeping, nation building, humanitarian foreign aid, or war fighting unless in direct defense of our nation's soil and our waters. To save lives, rather than a "liberation" of Iraq, the world needs liberation from American imperialism. Our next president, Obama, I believe will do nothing of significance toward that worthy mission. His foreign policy, packaged in a more sanitized smooth style, will not bring peace or prosperity to America or the world. It will continue the brutality. In my opinion it will be a policy of war continued with our forces in Iraq for years, and warmongering in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a policy of bombings, sanctions, detention camps and needless continuance of our military presence in nearly every part of the world. The only difference will be a U.S. president who will be better at trying to clean up our image through token actions and fine words. But U.S. imperialism will continue unfettered as it has for decades.
 Christine Smith is a freelance writer and political activist from Colorado. She has written numerous articles for state, national and international publications (newspapers, magazines, online publications) covering a wide range of topics: the arts, technology, business, politics, health, environment, social justice, human spirituality, and profile interviews with high achievers. Articles by Christine Smith at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/ChristineSmith |
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