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EJ Rotert (aka Squib)'s Blog
May 2009
Tuesday May 26, 2009
Posted by: EJ Rotert (aka Squib) at 11:09PM CST on May 26, 2009
Coming on the heels of Memorial Day, a day to honor our military dead, and most topically the death of a young Ladue woman in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, I want to say right off that I do not mean to make light of anyone's military sacrifice.
Instead, this letter is meant to profess the worth of those lives lost in service to this country. This written, I want to ask, and I demand an answer: when will the U.S. government finally come around to genuinely professing the same? Patriotism and noble ideals surround nearly all declarations of war. If reality dovetailed with this, I wouldn't be writing this letter -- but it doesn't. Most declarations of war are over concrete, finite considerations. Most times, these concrete, finite considerations come down to land and resources. Even religion -- the supposed cause of most wars over the course of mankind's history -- is used as a partner in this guise, the clergy class either actively involved or compliant. It's so much easier to sell a war on a noble calling or an abstract ideal, whether it be supposedly advantageous to the freedom of Kuwaiti nationals or rescuing innocent Iraqi civilians from the brutal and capricious hand of a murderous dictator. Or, whether it be over a call to end slavery, rather than to tack the course of a nation toward an industrial instead of an agrarian society. The United States has indeed fought its share of both defensive and/or good, noble wars. Among them: the Revolutionary War and World Wars I and II. But, as well, there have been those that mainly sought to enrich the military-industrial complex, most notably the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the current Iraqi War. I have to ask: when will this nation's parents stand up? When will the residents of our country, undeniably, state that their children are not fodder for the guns of the military-industrial complex? No parents want to believe that their children went to war and died -- or were left without legs, an arm, or a fully-functioning, healthy brain -- for a practical, base cause, such as oil reserves, in lieu of developing regenerative alternative fuels. But until parents speak up, this -- in the main -- will continue to be the case. Please, at long last, speak up. |
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