Posted on 03/13/2008 5:27:10 AM PDT by ricks_place
In the recent political battle around the Marine recruiting station in Berkeley there has been much confusion around the concept or slogan of “supporting the troops,” but opposing the unjust wars of the Bush regime. Many who oppose the Bush regime wars also say they “support the troops.” Let me say it straight out—I do not support the troops and neither should you. It is objectively impossible to support the troops of the imperialist military forces of the U.S. and at the same time oppose the wars in which they fight.
The United States has over 700 military bases or sites located in over 130 foreign countries. The hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in these countries are not there to preserve or foster freedom and democracy as the Bush regime would like to claim, but to maintain U.S. imperialist domination of the world. The United States now spends more on its military than all the other nations of the world combined.
If you “support the troops” in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the other more than 100 countries in which they are located, you also objectively support U.S. hegemony in the world. I believe that the vast majority of people who say they support the troops do not wish to support U.S. imperialism, but that is what they are really doing by putting forth the slogan of “support the troops.”
We need to oppose the recruitment of men and women into the military. We need to support resisters within the military who have realized what they are doing and now choose to resist the role of the U.S. military. This includes people such as Lt. Ehren Watada who refused to deploy to Iraq. Watada stated, “Never did I imagine my president would lie to go to war, condone torture, spy on Americans…” He was the first officer to refuse to go to Iraq and he was court-martialed. Another resister is Camilo Mejia. In 2004 Sergeant Mejia was sentenced to one year in prison when he was court-martialed for refusing to assist the military in Iraq. Mejia said, “I am only a regular person that got tired of being afraid to follow his own conscience. For far too long I allowed others to direct my actions even when I knew that they were wrong....”
We need to expose that those in the U.S. military are trained to be part of a “killing machine.” While not every member of the military is an individual murderer, they are all part of a system that commits war crimes, including aggressive wars, massacres, rape, and other crimes against humanity, all in the service of U.S. imperialism. The bottom line is that even if these people are relatives or friends, you can not support the troops without also supporting the objective role that these troops play in the imperialist system.
United States troops are acting as destructive and murderous forces of invasion and occupation. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan see this on a daily basis. Hundreds of thousands have died as a direct result of the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Millions are either internal or external refugees. Tens of thousands have been detained in prisons, with thousands of these tortured and scores murdered. Haditha, Iraq where 24 Iraqis were massacred is just the best known of the massacres. Women and children are routinely described as “collateral damage” by military spokespersons when they are murdered in military operations.
“Support for the troops” has become political cover to support the wars. In Congress, many of those who claim they oppose the wars, use “support of the troops” to vote for hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the wars. These politicians are political opportunists, but there are also people who genuinely oppose the war, but who also say “I support the troops.”
But to decide whether U.S. troops deserve support you must analyze what they actually do in countries occupied by the U.S. The wars these troops are engaged in have the goal of maintaining and extending U.S. hegemony throughout the world. They are unjust, illegal, and immoral wars. Can you support the troops in these wars? Why is this any different from a German in World War II saying, “I oppose the wars launched by Hitler, but I support the troops of the German army which are making these wars possible.” When the Marines in Haditha massacred Iraqis, including women and children, would it have been correct to say I supported the Marines who killed those people, but not the massacre? This would be ridiculous, but no more so than supporting the troops engaged in the war that made the Haditha massacre possible in the first place.
In 1933 Marine Major General Smedley Butler clarified the role of the U.S. military. He stated, “War is just a racket…It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses…I spent 33 years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps…In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism...”
Like Butler, Watada, and Mejia, those in the military today must take responsibility for what the military does. Just like the German soldiers of World War 2 could not hide behind the “I was just following orders” excuse, military personnel today also can not hide behind it. Those of us who oppose the unjust wars of the Bush regime must struggle with those in the military and those that support them to expose what role the troops objectively play. Supporting the troops engaged in making war against other nations and people on behalf of U.S. imperialism is not acceptable.
Oakland resident Kenneth J. Theisen is an organizer with the World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
And the children’s prisons. And the torture chambers that looked like abattoirs. The plastic shredders...the secret labs under prisons...
On the plus side, he hates himself more than I ever could.
I’ve been saying this for years. The Dims, in their strategic decision to appear supportive of the troops but not the war, have tried to have it both ways. Yet, as I have maintained from the beginning of their ploy, all of the troops are volunteers and all have volunteered to join or re-up while the WOT has been going on, ergo they all have volunteered to support the mission.
Socialism/Marxism is the racket which benefits the few (the very few) at the expense of the masses.
Hmmm ... Think for a moment:
Do "The Troops" really deserve support, if they're engaged in an immoral war effort?
Did "The Troops" of Hitler's Wehrmacht deserve support?
Did "The Troops" of the Imperial Japanese Army deserve support?
How about the Red Army? The Chinese Communist Forces? The North Vietnamese Army? The Republican Guard?
If the "The Troops" of the United States Army really were (as this guy believes) engaged in an effort as evil as that engaged in by the above named military establishments, would they deserve support or condemnation?
"I vas chust followink ORDERSSSS" is not a defense. God forbid that American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen ever be put in a position to have to resign or desert rather than "follow orders" to commit gross evil. I hope that they would have the courage to do so, if necessary. I further hope that the civilian population would have the good sense to demand it, again should it ever be necessary.
Whether or not the war is just is extremely relevant, and (this being a Republic) the justice of the war is very much a matter for the civilian citizens to judge.
I think that the author of this piece is dreadfully wrong in his judgment, and that his historical understanding is nearly zero ... but at least he's intellectually honest enough to not support troops engaged in a war he (however wrongly) considers evil.
Dang ... Great game designer. I really enjoyed his take on "Alice in Wonderland" ... bummer that he's such an idiot otherwise.
What a foolish article written by a sadly deceived leftist.
How much territory did we take for ourselvs in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan?
The answer is NOTHING, other than the simple request to bury a few of our brave fallen troops in foreign cemetaries.
The author needs a true U.S. history lesson - they have swallowed a massive pack of lies.
Remember, these guys think that Bush = Hitler.
What do we think of the German officers who tried to assassinate Hitler? Heroes, right? Even though the failed, they certainly tried to do the right thing.
That's how these characters see themsleves. If Bush = Hitler (as these guys assert), what's the right response? What would you want to do if a future POTUS were truly another Hitler?
The 1930's produced a certain isolationist mindset in America, even in some military men.
The butcher's bill for that mindset in the 1940's reached 40 million dead in Europe alone.
Since then, the Pax Americana has been taken for granted and will continue to be taken for granted until disaster of the magnitude of the 1940's strikes again.
He got this part right, this is the reason when the lefties say "I support the troops, but not the war" they find themselves at odds with those in the military. There really is no way both could be true. This lefty is telling it like it is from their point of view- which is great, most people have been fooled about how they really think about our military and indeed this country. Now they need to move somewhere else, this doesn't seem to be the place for them.
Chris Hedges: The War Against Tolerance 2-13-08
The War Against Tolerance
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080211_the_war_against_tolerance/
Posted on Feb 11, 2008 By Chris Hedges
Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges—a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy—to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called “Why We Want to Kill You,” promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims.
The only way you can make the claim that we have military basis in 130 countries is by calling the Marines at any US Embassy a military base!
This guy is full of crap - the numbers he is throwing around are demonstrably nonsense.
The wife was telling us how difficult it was when her husband was gone--how much it affected their two girls.
I quickly said, "Boy, it gives you a new respect for our military families, huh?" After that, we had a long conversation about how hard it would be to be a military spouse, and how when children are involved, only one parent should be gone at any given time.
GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY AND THEIR SACRIFICING FAMILIES!!! The mission is noble. The cause is just.
I'm sure the good citizens of the city would be happy to do all the work themselves, that the National Guard would normally be doing in any other city in a time of crisis. But since the Guard isn't welcome in Berzerkley, they shouldn't be sent there.
No, I haven't seen it before.
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