Memorial Day to honor those who served and lost their lives in that service.
As always, I support the troops. My divergence from most Americans is that I wouldn’t have sent them to die in bullsh*t wars in the first place. I don’t validate or provide cover to government sponsored and/or forced tragedy with a chest-thumping, misplaced, nationalist pride that mirrors the emotional and unquestioning obedience of religion.
While many would find this view offensive, it is not merely an inflammatory statement to invoke a moment of shocked contemplation. It has the deepest of implications. Those who believe and validate the manufactured premises, the white-washed histories, the overly simplified and distracting rationales, the promoted nationalist sentiment, the subservience of mind and body to the State,… they are a danger to humanity.
Many will point to the necessity of war in some circumstances. I don’t deny that here. What I will argue is that since the founding of the United States, it is unlikely that any of its wars have been necessary. Lincoln could have purchased slaves’ freedom, as every other developing nation did in their paths out of slavery. Was it morally superior for 600,000 soldiers to die in that war and to burn and pillage much of the South, as Sherman did in his March to the Sea?
WWI was hardly a US necessity. As a result, WWII likely would have never seen the German aggressions had not WWI’s Treaty of Versailles left that nation in a state of starvation and in search of a fanatical savior. Were the US not involved in China and blockading Japan’s imports of oil and commodities, the latter would have had little interest in Pearl Harbor or in debilitating the US in the Pacific.
All of the Cold War and its splinter wars (as well as the bloody, clandestine interventions) of anti-communist fervor, especially in Korea and Vietnam, would have been unfounded had FDR, and then Truman, not been the friend to Stalin, providing him a WWII win, increased power, and control over large swathes of Eastern Europe. (Realize, too, that Stalin killed tens of millions through starvation, political murders, genocide, and labor camps. Numerically, his level of mass murder could only have been dreamed of by the German with the little mustache.)
As what may be considered by many to be the most offensive thought in this post, please also realize that since WWII, had the US not been interfering, controlling resources, occupying nations, and overthrowing governments around the globe – typically without US citizen, and often even Congressional, knowledge – the invaders that came to attack in 2001, would have had no vengeful reasoning to do so. They attacked because their lands were occupied, they were being controlled, and there was no diplomatic avenue to address that resentment. None of that is to absolve the guilt of their offense, but for Americans to believe that persons from across the globe made the trip, efforts and ultimate personal sacrifices merely because they hated another nation’s prosperity, freedom and differing religions is a collective failure of reason. That failure is the result of purposeful ignorance and nationalist emotion. Certainly, that is the prevailing background of all wars throughout history.
While we must all be saddened by the loss of military lives, rather than validate governments’ and leaders’ misuse of its citizens, diverting attention and emotion from cause to effect, a more useful expenditure of energy would be to spend Memorial Day reading about these wars, their inceptions, the benefits elicited by these Authors of Destruction, the alternatives that were rejected, contemplating the costs, the disruptions, the societal upheavals, the unintended and little recognized downstream consequences, considering perhaps that our embedded worldviews might not entirely align with actual events and circumstances, and determining how to avoid these mistakes and misconceptions in the future.
I invite you to peruse the list of books on these pages for a relevant title. With a broadened perspective and a healthy dose of skepticism, perhaps we can make it more difficult for the Authors of Destruction to create the casualties that might be mourned on future Memorial Days. The best way to honor fallen soldiers is to stop creating them.
Addendum, the day after.
For a little levity, I’ll add the absolute silliness of our dogs at their Dogtopia home-away-from-home, where the spirit of the holiday was apparently in full force. This is embarrassingly adorable.
