I see a lot about military people guarding our freedoms… and
I get angry every single time I see it.
Really? Where on earth did you get that idea?
War is seldom about freedom and more often economics, imperialism
and greed. Sure, young people join because they feel a need to serve, to guard
freedom, but they fight for what the politicians send them to fight for.
Take, for example, the last and longest US wars –
Afghanistan and Iraq. If I hear one more person babble about 9/11 and these
debacles, I might scream. We invaded Iraq because Cheney and Rumsfeld convinced
Bush that there were WMDs there and that somehow, this would give us revenge
for a bunch of predominantly Saudi Arabian terrorists who carried out the 9/11
attacks. There were no WMDs and Iraq was not really part of 9/11.
We invaded Afghanistan to catch Osama Bin Laden, except he
wasn’t there so we stayed and stayed and stayed – pouring money and lives into
the stupidest, most ill-conceived war ever. 2300 years ago, Alexander the Great
got his ass handed to him in Afghanistan. They told him he could claim victory,
but his army had been beaten and he even lost his beloved Bucephalus there.
Over the centuries, other groups have sought to invade and take over only to be
defeated. The Russians fought there for 10 years, spent all the money they had,
saw their own government fall as a result and left with their tails between
their legs.
Why on earth did we go there? History told us it was a BAD
idea.
So was our freedom being challenged during this?
Certainly not by Iraq or Afghanistan.
Please understand, we do not fight wars for freedom. Those
days are long gone, if they ever existed at all. We fight for oil, for power,
to please our allies, and seemingly, to make Republican presidents feel manly. (Reagan
– Grenada, Bush I – Iraq, Bush II – Iraq, Afghanistan)
US Soldiers fight for many reasons, some less noble than
others, but all deserve our respect and they deserve more than the empty thank
you they get from their government. My problem with wars is not and has not
ever been the soldiers. My problem is with the cost – in lives, in money, in
pain and sorrow. And the lies – the lies the men who run wars tell us all about
why we are there, what we are doing and what our goals are. Every reason we
went to Iraq was a lie. Every single reason.
Please stop telling me how we fight for freedom. Do you know
the last war fought on America soil? WWII had an attack at Pearl Harbor (It was
not even a territory) and some spying by the Germans and Japanese. You have to
go back to the Civil War for a war fought totally in our own borders and that one
is still divisive and probably always will be.
We guard our freedoms by making sure that every person eligible
to vote is allowed to vote in free elections and by insuring a peaceful
transfer of power from one person to another as a result of those elections.
War will not save your freedom. Ever.
