my favorite church sign reads: Our soldiers give you the right to worship god.
On Jul 19, 9:33 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank You for Your Service?by Laurence M. VanceIt is without question that > Americans are in love with the military. Even worse, though, is that their > love is unqualified, unconditional, unrelenting, and unending. > I have seen signs praising the troops in front of all manner of businesses, > including self-storage units, bike shops, and dog grooming. > Many businesses offer discounts to military personnel not available to > doctors, nurses, and others who save lives instead of destroy them. > Special preference is usually given to veterans seeking employment, and not > just for government jobs. > Many churches not only recognize veterans and active-duty military on the > Sunday before holidays, they have special military appreciation days as well. > Even many of those who oppose an interventionist U.S. foreign policy and do > not support foreign wars hold the military in high esteem. > All of these things are true no matter which country the military bombs, > invades, or occupies. They are true no matter why the military does these > things. They are true no matter what happens while the military does these > things. They are true no matter which political party is in power. > The love affair that Americans have with the military – the reverence, the > idolatry, the adoration, yea, the worship – was never on display like it was > at the post office the other day. > While at the counter shipping some packages, a U.S. soldier, clearly of > Vietnamese origin in name and appearance, dressed in his fatigues, was > shipping something at the counter next to me. The postal clerk was beaming > when he told the soldier how his daughter had been an MP in Iraq. Three times > in as many minutes I heard the clerk tell the soldier – with a gleam in his > eye and a solemn look on his face – "Thank you for your service." The clerk > even shook the soldier’s hand before he left. > I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing, and I am no stranger to > accounts of military fetishes in action. > Aside from me not thanking that soldier for his service – verbally or > otherwise – I immediately thought of four things. > One, what service did this soldier actually render to the United States? If > merely drawing a paycheck from the government is rendering service, then we > ought to thank every government bureaucrat for his service, includingTSA > goons. Did this soldier actually do anything to defend the United States, > secure its borders, guard its shores, patrol its coasts, or enforce a no-fly > zone over U.S. skies? How can someone blindly say "thank you for your > service" when he doesn’t know what service was rendered? > Two, is there anything that U.S. soldiers could do to bring the military into > disfavor? I can’t think of anything. Atrocities are dismissed as collateral > damage in a moment of passion in the heat of battle by just a few bad apples. > Unjust wars, we are told, are solely the fault of politicians not the > soldiers that do the actual fighting. Paul Tibbets and his crew are seen as > heroes for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Before he died,Tibbets even > saidthat he had no second thoughts and would do it again. I suspect that if > the United States dropped an atomic bomb tomorrow on Afghanistan and > Pakistan, killing everyone and everything, and declaring the war on terror > over and won, a majority of Americans would applaud the Air Force crew that > dropped the bomb and give them a ticker-tape parade. > Three, why is it that Americans only thank American military personnel for > their service? Shouldn’t foreign military personnel be thanked for service to > their country? What American military worshippers really believe is that > foreign military personnel should only be thanked for service to their > government when their government acts in the interests of the United States. > Foreign soldiers are looked upon as heroic if they refuse to obey a military > order to shoot or kill at the behest of their government as long as such an > order is seen as not in the interests of the United States. U.S. soldiers, > however, are always expected to obey orders, even if it means going to Iraq, > Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, or Libya under false pretenses. > And four, what is a Vietnamese man – who most certainly has relatives, or > friends or neighbors of relatives, that were killed or injured by U.S. bombs > and bullets during the Vietnam War – doing joining the U.S. military where he > can be sent to shoot and bomb foreigners like the U.S. military did to his > people? > And aside from these four things, I’m afraid I must also say: Sorry, > soldiers, I don’t thank you for your service.I don’t thank you for your > service in fighting foreign wars.I don’t thank you for your service in > fighting without a congressional declaration of war.I don’t thank you for > your service in bombing and destroying Iraq and Afghanistan.I don’t thank you > for your service in killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans.I > don’t thank you for your service in expanding the war on terror to Pakistan > and Yemen.I don’t thank you for your service in occupying over 150 countries > around the world.I don’t thank you for your service in garrisoning the planet > with over 1,000 military bases.I don’t thank you for your service in > defending our freedoms when you do nothing of the kind.I don’t thank you for > your service as part of the president’s personal attack force to bomb, > invade, occupy, and otherwise bring death and destruction to any country he > deems necessary. > Thank you for your service? I don’t think > so.http://lewrockwell.com/vance/vance250.html -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
