I never thought in my life that I would have to live through another Vietnam. At first I tried to compare it to Desert Storm 1 as an example but that skirmish didn't linger half as long as the nightmare that perpetuates on a daily basis in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Pakistan.
What's the reason for this article?
Well, I'm sick and tired of seeing mountains of fluff and entertainment. Yes, I do them as well but I also know how to balance them with the cold hard ugly reality that we need to gaze into every once in a while.
I guess the next question I should ask myself would be why do I care?
No one else does. People love to wave around their chinese made American flags and drink beer and obsess about their material posessions. Well I'm not going to be like that, I remember the first time the war(s) hit home for me. I turned on the television and we saw the portraits of dead soldiers recently blown to bits in the pointless wars. The same wars that were built on paranoia and lies. Most of the visages I let pass by without even glancing at their once smiling faces until just then a young blonde haired boys mug centered on the screen. Until this very day I hear the media announcer stating his age as his face continued to stare back at me through the television screen.
21 years old......21 years old...... the voice echoed.
I was twenty one as well at the time and for some reason I put myself in his position. I pictured myself shot to pieces in some desert wasteland by a bunch of Iraqi people that didn't want us there to begin with. I saw the anger in their faces of what we were doing to them, bombs dropping on suburban areas, my troops and private mercenary groups shooting civilians for no reason. Then I pictured the black rubber body bag bring zipped around me and the bouncing around on the cargo deck of a plane heading back home. To the land of the free. I didn't stop there either. I went even farther with my thoughts. I pictured my mother in pain and misery looking at me inside the shiny casket. The child which she once gave birth to dead prematurely because of lies....... because of deceit........ because of greed of the wealthy war profiteers.
I still hold those feeling with me every time I come home. Every time I see my father screaming at the TV because he disagrees with the news reporter. Every time I see my Mother cooking dinner. I then think of the Fathers and Mothers of the children who were led to the slaughter because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, GE, Halliburton, Blackwater, and now Obama wanted to make a profit off the Human sufferage. I sometimes think of Colin Powell holding up the fake "anthrax" vial and shaking it around as if Saddam Hussein the nefarious substance at his disposal. I think of how President Bush kept envoking the 9/11 myth over and over again to fool the American people into fighting a war of imperialism. How they played upon their irrationality, their emotional weakness convince them to offer up themselves and their children on the to alter for the good of corporate monopolies.
It still continues to this day. Obama is no different. He promised an end to the war but then starts a new one with Pakistan. Obama's predator drones are the bane of peaceful Pakistani villages all over the country. Civilians are prey for our souless flying machines. Commanded cynically by some brainwashed 19 year old service member in some far off air conditioned bunker.
I now invite all of you to look at Mrs. Sheehans website and continue the anti-war sentiments until this useless chaos stops. Please visit the link below and realize that Obama and Bush are controlled by the same people. The same people who killed that 21 year old soldier and ruined the lives of his family.
I completely agree with you. These wars are an absolute joke. A facade of deceit implemented for the gain of personal wealth, not any sort of greater good.
ReplyDeleteWas Sadam Huesein an evil man? Yes he was. But we went and dethroned his sorry ass under false pretenses. Would have been one thing to have said were going to liberate the Iraqi people from an evil dictator. But the WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) scandal and unproven ties to the islamic terrorist actions of 9/11/2001 really ripped the whole foundation for the reasoning behind the war away.
Afghanistan made sense at first, as it really was the base of operations for the terrorists. But it's been handled all wrong and those in power, namely the men of White House as you've pointed out, are all about greed and using the "war(s)" for personal gain. Afghanistan is Vietnam, if our leaders had wanted to win we would have already done so. Our allies realised this a while back and that's really why they've pulled their troops out already.
In WWII our leaders were patriots, they fought to win. We occupied Germany (or rather part of it) and we completely occupied Japan. We ensured that our true enemies died and that the rest of the remaining populace was re-educated both socially and politically to learn tolerance and some degree of respect for us.
In Iraq and Afghanistan alike we went in with the wrong attitude from the very start. Both nations were handed there political freedom to do as they please before we ever got anywhere near cleaning house. And now both nations are just as bad off or nearly, as they were politically. Iraq still has tribal/ethnic "cleansing" and Afghanistan is still run by a bunch of hateful terrorists.
At the end of the day all we've managed to do is entice the hatred of a larger populace in Iraq than had ever hated us before the war and give the Afghan terrorists American targets to shoot at in their own front yards.
Both war fronts are absolute failures. And this insanity with provoking Pakistan makes no sense whatsoever. Pakistan is a strong nation and perfectly capable of dealing with thier internal affairs without our own nation foolishly over riding their home turf military authority.