http://www.fliptrack.com/watch/xP2MRCIJud
I had almost cried during this video. I don't what kind of difference or realization this will make, but send to as many people as possible PLEASE
Support The Troops
OK, I'll bite
To begin with, how exactly does this ‘video’ support the troops? It is merely a collection of still photographs of soldiers (not all of which are US troops by the way) set to incredibly bad and cheesy music. What would sending it to as many people as possible achieve, except to have friends ridicule me for my sudden wave of horrible taste?
But beyond that, what do you mean by supporting the troops? Do you mean that literally in the financial sense? Because they’ve got a pretty good employment package, especially when you consider the health care and other benefits. Or do you mean that I should support them as part of the imperial project in which they are engaged? No, thank you. They are active agents in the execution and perpetuation of a foreign policy that is based on hubris, imperialistic-impulses, and guaranteed to make the American population less secure. And I am not just speaking of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the larger geopolitical machination that the soldiers are engaged in. Should I ignore those policies just because these are good people and they don’t make the policies? No. Any American citizen who joined the US military in the last fifty years cannot be ignorant of the policies they were being asked to enforce. And if they were ignorant, they don’t deserve my support for their ignorance. Moreover, if we remove the soldiers from the policies they are asked to enforce, are you asking me to support the militarized service in which they are engaged? A job which, when we really get down to it, asks human beings to kill and maim other human beings because their ‘superiors’ tell them? Again I must say no, thank you. I feel bad for the troops, I pity the troops, and I empathize with the troops. But I will not support their form of employment or the ends to which they are utilized. And I most certainly will not be sending anybody that crappy video.
empathy aside,
I wonder how you might respond, KPunk, to the larger question of how on earth people who join the military might otherwise support themsleves? Those that do so out of necessity of course. In a government such as ours, it seems easy of course to create the necessity, and I understand that, but still. Ya gotta eat.
Of course, I ask for entirely personal reasons. Cause it is usually before then that I back out of the conversation and slink down the hallway to my room.
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Ah yes, the 'a boys gotta eat' defense for engaging in a career predicated on murder. No, seriously, I can't even count the number of personal friends who joined the services in large part for those reasons. I grew up in a military town, so that path was followed by many. But what gets my goat -- really grabs it by the scruff of its neck -- is the fact that through our domestic economic policies we have created an underclass who we rely on to staff our mercenary armed forces which we use to engage in foreign policies meant to ensure our privileged way of life. Or, to be more flippant, we keep our poor so poor that they go off and kill other poor people so we can continue to be rich. And then we're asked to 'support the troops' in order to keep us from questioning both the socio-economic policies that force our poor to fight for us or the foreign policies of the empire. It is fucking shameful and, as I said, it gets my goat. And I'm just suppose to say it is all OK because my buddies joined the army, navy and marines because they had virtually no other options? No ma'am. They had other options and they knew what they were doing, what would be asked of them, and why, when they joined. The core issue that you are pointing to -- the fact that we have an economic system that systemically produces otherwise unemployable gun fodder -- is an important one, but doesn't negate culpability. And when I am speaking of culpability, I am talking about myself here as well.
Just out of curiosity
And to stray slightly off the subject, do you Kpunk or anyone here, feel that you owe any type of debt or allegiance or anything for the lifestyle/liberty/whatever that this country has afforded you? I only ask this retarded question because whenever I get into the above conversation with my Dad he eventually throws this in my face. The implication being of course that if you don't just go along with it, even if you don't agree with it, than you are just ungrateful. Do you think everyone should do public service?
I think that everyone should
I think that everyone should be involved in some sort of public service, however, joining the military as a public service has never seemed like a good argument for killing people. Killing does not help the public in anyway.
Rather, I hope people become engaged in some sort of activity that will help their community and world whether it be Ameri corps, the Peace Corps, work for an NGO or a non-profit or something else of value.
And yes, I am grateful for many of the things America has given me. But I also acknowledge that I lead a life of privilege that causes others to suffer. The U.S. has been a great experiment of ideas, really the first of it's kind, but it is only a template. It seems ridiculous that people are unwilling to change the system because it is perceived as unamerican. That is our privilege right there. Some of our ideas are great, but if we wish to stop the systematic oppression we dispense throughout the world everyday, we have to scrap what we have made and start over.
Sometimes I think there are three different types of people in this country. Those who would exploit others at every chance, those who wish to help other as long as it doesn't disrupt their lifestyle, and those who are really working for change. I am grateful that I have been given a chance to work for change. When the first two group accuse us of being ungrateful it is only because they are scared of losing power and scared of what the world would look like if it didn't have the rules America created.
And now it is time for class.
hmmm
Any American citizen who joined the US military in the last fifty years cannot be ignorant of the policies they were being asked to enforce. And if they were ignorant, they don’t deserve my support for their ignorance.
The last guy that I know who joined up - just last year(!) - is my boss's kid. He definitely doesn't fit the mold. He's a lazy, over privileged rich kid with absolutely no sense of "duty." He used to "work" with me over the summers and talk about how he wanted to join the military so he could "shoot guns." Even though he was a dumb ass, I never thought he would actually go through with it.
To KPunk's point though: I do think that this kid's grasp of geo-politics was pretty much representative of that of a good 50% of those of others who enlist: Absolutely none. From my brief conversations with/interrogations of this numb skull I gleamed a few nuggets that help me put the military into better perspective: He had never heard of Nagasaki or Hiroshima. He had heard of the term "cold war," but thought it had "something to do with terrorists." And my favorite: he did not know "who won the Civil War." This kid is a high school graduate. I seriously don't know what you're supposed to do with people like this. I guess for a brief period after WWII they were allowed to peacefully work well paid blue collar jobs and raise families only showing up on America's cultural radar if they started taking their local militias too seriously or voted some backwards thinking local school board into power. Unfortunately, as I'm told everyday by my millionaire elected officials on all sides, Americans don't want to do those jobs anymore, so I guess we need to ship them somewhere to be killed.
P.S. ...and what should be done about Darfur, etc.? I mean, even the most hippy drippy peacenics are calling for military intervention to stop the ethnic cleansing. I'm not asking 'cause I'm trying to point out flaws in anyone's anti-military ideologies, but 'cause I have a hard time reconciling this shit with myself...
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And to stray slightly off the subject, do you Kpunk or anyone here, feel that you owe any type of debt or allegiance or anything for the lifestyle/liberty/whatever that this country has afforded you? I only ask this retarded question because whenever I get into the above conversation with my Dad he eventually throws this in my face. The implication being of course that if you don't just go along with it, even if you don't agree with it, than you are just ungrateful. Do you think everyone should do public service?
Yeah, I get that one a lot too. Briefly, here are my two usual responses. First, when talking about liberties and freedoms, I am very grateful for all those things that I enjoy. But most of those liberties were the result of activists and social movements, not armed forces. And the slim hold that I and my fellow citizens have on them continues to be because of the good work of activists and social movements. Second,over the past 50 years, the US military has not been employed in foreign lands to protect my liberties or freedoms, but to increase and maintain US hegemony and the capitalist world system. Our liberties and freedoms were not at stake in Lebanon, Haiti, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and so on. For the past fifty years the US military has been an instrument of imperial foreign policies. Arguments that fail to recognize the context within which American servicemen and women are used tend to make the simplistic and faulty conflation between US military and protection of our freedoms. Simply put, the primary purpose of our military is not to defend our democracy, despite what the TV commercials say. Their primary purpose is to ensure our continued way of life (such as guaranteeing continued access to resources made cheap). Do I enjoy this wonderfully privileged lifestyle? Durn tootin'. But I don't for a moment pretend that it doesn't come with a huge price tag; one that I'm not actually paying. And I'm not saying that the US military is the one's paying that cost. Rather it is the bulk of the world's population that suffers so that I can have extraordinary privileges.
I'm reminded of the conclusion of one of my kid's books (Town Mouse and Country Mouse to be exact) when the Country Mouse concludes: "I'd rather lead a simple life in peace, than dine on riches and live in fear."
And yes, I believe there should be a universal draft in this country, where everyone must give a full year of service to the nation, ideally through public service.
...
To KPunk's point though: I do think that this kid's grasp of geo-politics was pretty much representative of that of a good 50% of those of others who enlist: Absolutely none.
P.S. ...and what should be done about Darfur, etc.
Yeah, my characterization of those that enlist was pretty generalized. But how did this kid, like others I know myself, get to the age of 18 without being aware of geopolitics? Through willful ignorance and the failure of our education system. Is it his fault? Yeah, but not entirely, which is why I pity him and feel bad for him. But 'support' him and his mission? There is a lot of ideological work at play in that claim of 'supporting our troops' and I am trying to actively resist it. You boss' son is a dumb-ass (by your characterization) who wants to kill people and perform violently militarized rituals of masculinity. Nope, I'm not going to 'support' him, as I understand that term.
As for Darfur, let me ask the question of why is it 'we' think 'we' should do something about it? There are two things going on in this position. First is the assumption that the US has the right and responsibility to intervene anywhere in the world. This is a good example of the imperial hubris we have so easily internalized during the Cold War era and beyond. Second, as you point out, even hippy peaceniks can only think of our intervention in military terms. This is a reflection of the militarization of our society that has also taken place over the past several decades. We feel we must intervene everywhere, and can only do so militarily. This mentality reflects why we are an empire in the throes of its own self-inflicted collapse.
But the specifics of Darfur require us to have a serious conversation about oil (yeah, Sudan has ass-loads and we want it, as do the Chinese), land and water in this capitalist world system that we have created and maintain. To pretend that the US and the West is not already deeply
involved in the creation of this conflict is a mistake. And more to the point, we are already militarily involved there. There are Blackwater troops on the ground. Does that scare you? It fucking should..
I don't necesarrily think that it is the job of "the West" to go around the world bringing an end to conflicts. But I think sometimes when there is the means to deal with a problem so huge, you gotta deal with it. And unfortunately a humanitarian mission would need military backing.
And more to the point, we are already militarily involved there. There are Blackwater troops on the ground. Does that scare you? It fucking should.
Everything that Blackwater does scares the shit out of me.
For the most part, I agree with you. My "support" for the troops is pretty limited. Maybe it's a character flaw, but I understand how the indoctrinated can remain firm in their belief that anything they are asked to do by the military is in the name of defending "truth justice and the American way." That's the thing about indoctrination; it's a hard thing to shake. I can't totally write people off because their ideas are completely out of step with my reality. "The troops" are going through hell. The people of Iraq are going through a greater hell, but I feel a lot of sympathy and a need to show my "support" for the men and women on the ground - even if a lot of them are ignorant assholes. I guess I show my support in a pretty minimal way - showing up for rallies, engaging friends and family in debate, and holding out the slimmest of hopes that I might get a chance to cast a vote for a scum fuck politician who might do something to end the occupation... Which would be treating a symptom, not the disease.
I think properly administrated universal conscription would go a long way towards waking this country from it's selfish apathetic slumber.
Joined: 2007-11-25
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