Touchdown
Lots has happened since my last post: I have graduated from college, moved apartments, and begun a short vacation in the Mississippi/Arkansas area. I travelled home today only to meet these guys as I neared baggage claim to pick up my one suitcase.
I offer just one other graphic for the sake of context before going on what will probably be characterised as a “psuedo-intellectual, liberal, anti-war, hippie rant.”
Let’s face it. The military is a business. It is a global business that exploits everyone regardless of his or her political stance on it. Google war good for economy and you’ll get a slew of results from the right and the left, both pushing their agendas.
And here I am, pushing my agenda.
To me, the military is a business. The only pure way to avoid viral marketing is to state your product, state where it is available, state how to acquire it. I certainly don’t need military recruiting stations located at baggage claim at a small town’s international airport. List yourself in the yellowpages. Take out billboard ads. Pass out flyers if you so wish. But don’t look so alarmed if I look at you in disgust.
Time magazine published a story about six military men killed in Iraq on the same day as the Virgina Tech shootings. Here I found my favourite argument for joining the military, the most heartfelt and sincere (or so its speakers claim). The justification is I am fighting this war (or every other war ever fought) to defend your freedoms.
Well, when you sign your name on the dotted line that asks you to do whatever the commander in chief says, regardless of whether or not your personal morality supports it, remember my freedom of speech – you know the one you claim to be defending for me.
I don’t support the troops. Maybe I’m just unsympathetic. Maybe I’m just too driven by my political agenda to be a “decent human being.” Or maybe I don’t want to be forced to care about a war I don’t believe in. Supporting the troops doesn’t have to mean supporting the war. Yes, I’m aware. I’m also aware of the grave economic situations that drive people to sign up for the military, the fact that people think they’ll never end up in face-to-face combat. But, still when you choose the military, you make a choice to fight, potentially, in a war you don’t support. There are other ways. If, I, as an immigrant, can attend college at a four-year private institution with my mother working around the clock, so can anyone else.
I think it’s obscene of the politicians who ushered the world into this War on TerrorTM to leave you there without equipment, training, proper vacations, but you and your fellow Americans chose this government. I didn’t. You chose it. You signed up to fight on its behalf and support its values in a fight I don’t believe in. So, try and give me a reason I should support you when you didn’t support me.
Yes, I know it’s a changing world and terrorism is real. I read the news. I’m on the ball. But, the fear-mongering across the world is reaching epic proportions. Who in their sane mind feels more secure and/or comfortable when they see someone toting around M16s? when they have to take off their flip-flops to pass through security at an airport? when they have to consider and re-consider if a certain blog post or tapped phone conversation will lead to being charged with treason (if you’re a citizen) or deportation (if you’re not)?
Seeing your gun-toting, brainwashed youth doesn’t make me feel safe and it certainly doesn’t make me feel free, America.
Great post.
I thought this was interesting:
“But officials said the four men determined to carry out their attack, having conducted “precise and extensive” surveillance of the airport using photographs, video, the recollections of Mr. Defreitas and…”
Here we go.
“…satellite images downloaded from Google Earth.”
belownewyork
Sunday, 3 June 2007 at 10:51 AM
I completely support and fully share your sentiments regarding a lack of support for the “troops.” I do not support the troops. Like you say, there is a distinct difference between supporting a war, and doing the same for those physically engaged in it. But for this particular conflict, I refuse to support either. When this conflict is so clearly damaging to a) the literal and political infrastructure of Iraq b) the population of a Iraq c) the international opinion of the United States, and d) the financial, political, and moral stability of the United States, I cannot, with any shred of conscience, support such an historic catastrophe, and I certainly will not give any condonation or respect to those perpetuating the misadventure by refusing to disobey orders from leaders with no foresight, no historical perspective, and no understanding of the consequences the actions of the past five years will have in the next hundred.
“Support the Troops” is a hell of a bumper sticker. It looks great plastered to the bottom of a news graphic. It even sounds sensible, if you don’t put any thought into it. But the phrase “Support the Troops” is, of course, nothing more than an effective, quotable, reliable bit of propaganda that implies that anything other than “support” is the willful desire for the troops to be killed, or stranded helplessly in the cruel desert. Bullshit, of course, but try convicing the fools who think otherwise and you’ll soon realize any attempt to breach their ignorance is futile. As with everything in this endless “War on Terror,” those who support it can only see this issue in two shades: black and white.
With everything political, it’s situational. There have been historical conflicts and other such instances where I would have supported those on the ground and in the air fighting. I may not have supported those wars, but I would give my respect and appreciation to, say, those fighting Germany in World War II to end Hitler’s slow swallowing of the continent. But with the current action in Iraq, the only troops I can support with a good conscience are those who see the dangers and disregard for humanity that define the administration’s foreign policy, and who therefore lay down their arms and defect. To those troops, I commend you. The rest, well know this: each time you pull that trigger, each time you drop a bomb from far away, you’re killing more than people. You’re killing the freedoms and liberties you claim to be protecting. You’re destroying this country and all that once made it a great nation. Shame on you, and shame on those who support the war and anyone actively participating in it.
Lee Transue
Monday, 4 June 2007 at 4:10 PM