Blind Patriotism Triumphs
I came across an interesting story the other day about a passenger on a jet airliner who noticed a few members of the U.S. military waiting to board the same jet on which she was traveling.
While not wanting to approach them directly and tell them that she supported them, she still wanted to let them know that she admired and respected their bravery and courage. Quickly, she thought of a way to show -- silently -- the admiration and respect she felt she wanted to communicate.
Her spontaneous gesture, she felt, was both relevant and appropriate: her hand over her heart, while she silently looked them in the eyes, to convey the appreciation she felt our military men and women truly deserved.
Spontaneously, seeing her silent salute, many other passengers placed their right hand over their hearts to let our military men and women know that they were on “their side” and supported their dedication. It must have been a touching display.
I can perfectly understand why most any American would want to show, in some small way, their admiration, respect and support of the brave men and women of our armed forces who put their lives in jeopardy in service to our country in theaters of conflict around the world. The problem is that our military men and women are fighting for our government, not the people and interests of the United States. And whereas one might think that to fight for one’s government would equate with fighting for the interests of the people that government represents, then you have precisely stumbled upon the conundrum which more than a few of our military personnel have had to confront.
Simply stated, the Federal Government no longer represents the will, hope, aspirations and interests of the people of the United States. Instead, it has been shackled by multinational corporate agendas, blinded by the greed dangled before it by the financial interests of banks and security firms, and vampirized by a foreign power which clandestinely and surreptitiously usurps both the blood and treasure of The United States for its own purposes.
With a civilian led military force, as we have in the United States, our military is used at the command of our Federal Government. And whereas, at one time not so long ago, the Legislative Branch of our government performed its' constitutional role of declaring war, now that power has been gradually usurped by the Executive Branch, so that the awesome power of our military is now be used at the discretionary whim of the Executive, committing our armed forces to fight in undeclared wars, incursions, and “police actions,’ while adulterating the role of our soldiers to ‘peacekeeping” and “nation-building....”.
Rather than existing for the honest defense of our country -- our land, our borders, our people, our property, our way of life -- our military and all of its branches now exists as a means to eliminate governments and peoples opposed to the wishes of those multinational corporations whose political donations dictate where our military forces are used, and for what purposes they serve the politicians beholden to those forces, rather than the interests of our country.
I am not the first to make this observation. Major Smedley Butler, one of the most highly decorated Marines in the history of the Marine Corps, made it earlier in the previous century, when he wrote that “War is a Racket” which was promoted for the elite privileged few to bring about social and economic changes on the political playing fields in the territories and countries upon which it was imposed for the economic benefit of specific individuals and corporations.
Nowadays, even worse than placing our brave young men and women in harm’s way for the advantage of the multinational conglomerates which stand to gain the most benefit by building an oil pipe line from Afghanistan to Haifa, we find that the foreign policy of the United States, as well as the commitment of our ground troops and the support mechanisms of our armed forces are really acting as the proxy power of our "Great Ally" in the Middle East, so that it never has to dirty its hands or fight its battles directly.
With every passing day it becomes more clear and indisputable that our armed forces, the best in the world, are at the beck and call of The Money Power which pulls all the strings behind the screen, making our politicians skip, dance and jump to whatever tune they may wish to play, while providing the camouflage and smoke screens to mask their true motives via the media they own throughout the United States.
It is profoundly disturbing that our great military machine, our brave and patriotic men and women, suffer the risk of permanent disfigurement, horrific injuries, and death to satisfy the imposition of this foreign will, in almost every case completely antithetical to the interests of the United States and its people, for the benefit of a privileged elite in this country and that other.
So therefore I proffer this humble suggestion: knowing that our military must, by the terms of its existence, labor under the yoke of civilian rule, a military which has been turned from its true course by the usurpation of its proper direction by our politicians who care far more for power and wealth than patriotism and their people, I feel the only fitting response of the average citizen, when encountering our fine military personnel on an airplane en route to yet another occupied country, or yet another undeclared war, or yet another nation upon which we have imposed the boot of our military presence, should be to place one hand on their forehead and the other on their wallet or purse, rather than on their hearts: on their head to symbolize the treasonous insanity of using our brave military men and women to achieve favorable advantage for privileged multinational corporations through military force; while placing the other hand on their wallets or purse, to symbolize the waste of resources and treasure, and the sordid waste of our nation's bravest and finest men and women for the benefit of this elite few.
For the truth is that our military no longer fights for the interests of the people and the Nation of the United States, but for it banksters, its political gangsters, and the international power elite who gravitate around their temporary Middle Eastern power base like flies around feces.
I place my hand on my heart only in my thoughts, when I think of all the needless killing, death, destruction, blood and treasure squandered for those who put our brave military personnel needlessly in harms way, not for the benefit of the People of the United States, but for the benefit of the privileged elite who pull the strings of our Government-Media complex.
L C Vincent
lcvincent888@gmail.com
Copyright 2009, L C Vincent, all rights reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any media, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of the author.
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