FROM
VETERANS = ARMISTICE & PEACE DAY TO WAR MONGERISM
VETERANS
DAY HYPOCRISY
By Stephen Lendman. Global Research, November 11, 2013
The former honors war and peacetime veterans. It largely thanks living ones. It does so disingenuously.
Veterans Day was formerly Armistice Day. It commemorates the war to end all wars. In 1918, guns on both sides largely fell silent. They did so on the 11th hour of the 11th day of 11th month.
In 1919, remembrance began. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it, saying:
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
In 1938, Congress declared Armistice Day a legal holiday. It called it “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
In 1954, Congress changed its name. Dwight Eisenhower endorsed it. He signed legislation designating November 11 henceforth as Veterans Day. He issued a presidential order. It called on VA officials to form a Veterans Day National Committee. It mandated them to organize and oversee a national remembrance day.
Parades and public ceremonies commemorate it. They ignore what’s most important. They glorify wars. America doesn’t wage them for peace. Washington considers it abhorrent.
Veterans Day dishonors living and dead veterans. It ignores longstanding US imperial lawlessness. It airbrushes from history decades of what matters most. It includes militarism, raw aggression, permanent wars on humanity, mass killing and destruction, exploiting resources and people, seeking unchallenged global dominance, and creating unspeakable human misery.
Depravity defines America’s agenda. War is a national obsession. It’s a longstanding addiction.It’s got nothing to do with national security. It’s not about making the world safe for democracy. Americans are systematically lied to. Young men and women are enlisted on false pretenses.
Propaganda glorifies wars in the name of peace. Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
Nations are destroyed to ”liberate” them. Plunder is called economic development. Imperial lawlessness is called humanitarian intervention.
Ruthless dominance is called democracy. Monied interests alone benefit. Making the world safe for banksters and other corporate crooks matters most.
Youths are cannon fodder. They’re used, abused and ignored [you]. America’s imperial appetite is insatiable. One war follows others. Nations are ravaged and destroyed one at a time or in multiples.
Veterans Day should condemn wars. It should feature ways to end them. It should prioritize never again. It should expose America’s real agenda.
It should remember Lincoln at Gettysburg, saying:
“(W)e
here resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation
under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” [However] War
raged months longer. Ending one leads to others. A destructive cycle of violence
continues.
Remembrance should be contrition. It should pledge peace. It should honor anti-war activism. [Manning is and will be always our hero] It should turn swords into ploughshares.
It should back rhetoric with policy. It should combine Veterans and Memorial Days. It should change them to Peace Day. It should pledge never again and mean it.
On November 9, Obama’s weekly address [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/09/weekly-address-honoring-america-s-veterans ] ignored what’s matters most. He didn’t surprise. He lied like he always does. He’s a serial liar.
He began saying “(t)hank you to that greatest
generation who fought island by island across the Pacific, and freed millions
from fascism in Europe.”
“Thank you to the heroes who risked everything
through the bitter cold of Korea and the stifling heat of Vietnam.”
“And thank you to all the heroes who have served
since, most recently our 9/11 Generation of veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan.”
He failed to say Korea, Vietnam, and all other US post-WW II wars were lawless. They were premeditated aggression. They’re responsible for crimes of war, against humanity, genocide, and unspeakable human suffering.
No one involved in wars has reason to be proud. Past and present administration and Pentagon officials are war criminals. So are complicit congressional members and bureaucrats.
Obama claimed his “top priority” is assuring veterans “never have to fight for a job when (they) come home.” He “made sure” it wouldn’t happen, he said. Obama lied. Unemployment is at Depression era levels.
Labor Department figures are manipulated. They’re fake. Most jobs created don’t pay enough to live on. Millions struggle to get by. So do vets.
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates around 63,000 homeless veterans on any given night.
Over the course of a year, it says, double that number experience homelessness. Numbers are increasing, it adds.
Uncaring government officials bear full responsibility. Services provided are meager at best. Nothing is done to address unemployment.
US resources go for war. Helping returning vets doesn’t matter. They’re replaced with new recruits sent off to fight. They’re lied to about reasons why. They’re largely ignored on returning home.
A previous article addressed record numbers of US military and veterans suicides. Most people don’t know. Little gets reported.
Obama ignores them. He’s preoccupied with waging wars. He’s got others in mind. He’s mindless about shocking numbers of active duty personnel and vets taking their own lives.
Unbearable emotional pain consumes them. Daily trauma builds. So does intolerable stress. Relief is desperately sought. Suicide is chosen. It’s a last option. Others were exhausted.
Daily stress is bad enough. Combat exacerbates it. It’s intolerable for many. America consumes its own.
Epidemic post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) levels affect hundreds of thousands of combat forces and vets.
Official numbers understate the problem. It’s huge. Independent reports say up to half of Afghan and Iraq vets have emotional and/or physical combat injuries.
They’ll never be the same again. They’re traumatized. Many can’t cope. Their suffering goes largely unnoticed. Many needing help don’t get it.
Left untreated, things worsen. Able-bodied youths become physically and emotionally crippled. War is hell and then some.
Horrifying flashbacks persist. PTSD prevents normal functioning. Artificial limbs aren’t like nature’s.
Damaged emotions aren’t made whole. Broken psyches aren’t easily repaired. Shattered lives stay that way. Shocking suicide numbers explain best.
So do Depression level numbers of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and left on their own vets. Despair defines their condition.
They suffer out of sight and mind. They die the same way. America treats its own with disdain.
Countless numbers of vets are at risk. Suicide levels may increase. Advancing America’s imperium matters most.
All federal holidays reflect hypocrisy. Commemorations hide vital truths. America’s dark side stays out of sight and mind.
All politicians lie. Obama exceeds the worst of others. He prioritizes war on humanity and then some. He sanitizes his real agenda. Don’t expect him to explain.
Related
content:
Veterans For Peace Chapter 92 in
Greater Seattle is represented by the ACLU of Washington in suing the city of
Auburn for the right to participate in this year’s Veterans Day Parade.
Veterans For Peace chapters are participating in events… http://www.globalresearch.ca/veterans-for-peace-sues-to-march-in-veterans-day-parade/5310938
Soldiers Want the Wars to End I
wrote the following on Veterans’ Day 2008:
Today, I sincerely and passionately
honor our veterans. So many have endured unimaginable hardship, trauma or
injury. Some have paid the ultimate price to defend our… http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-to-honor-veterans-on-veterans-day-end-the-wars-and-restore-liberty-justice-and-opportunity-for-the-99/27615
On July 8, 2013, 17 U.S. military
veterans and their allies will stand trial after being arrested as
they read the names of the fallen and laid flowers in their memory at New
York City’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The NYPD… http://www.globalresearch.ca/veterans-on-trial-for-peaceable-assembly-at-vietnam-veterans-memorial/5341613
There are 21.5 million Veterans in
the US. From Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, 14 Percent of Veterans
suffer from PSTD, Depression and Chronique Fatigue 1,4 million Veterans are at
risk of homelessness due to poverty and unemployment. … http://www.globalresearch.ca/shocking-facts-about-us-veterans-1-suicide-every-65-minutes/5351745
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HERE A MARINE TALKS HIS EXPERIENCE:
November 12, 2013 "Information Clearing House - As
I write, it is Veterans Day. Coincidentally last night, November tenth, the annual Marine Corps
birthday party took place at the Tratoria, a local Italian restaurant. I hadn´t gone before, not being much of
a joiner, but went this time with Vi and Natalia. The assembled were nice
people, well along in years, as am I. There were good food, patriotic speeches,
and a birthday cake. We sang
the Marine Corps Hymn, though “from the halls of Montezuma” was perhaps not a
high point of diplomatic appropriateness in Mexico.
Most veterans in the Legion halls
have had little contact with people in other countries, especially with the
people of the countries where they have fought. I did. I covered the last year
of the debacle in Vietnam, 1974-75, as a stringer for Army Times [..] There I found the Viets, the Cambodians, the
Chinese to be likable sorts, damned interesting, caught up in a godawful
tragedy not of their making and beyond their understanding. They
didn´t understand about our freedom. They didn´t understand why half a million
foreigners were in their country, bombing, shelling, napalming, burning,
killing. Which is exactly what we were doing.
A decade of so back, I was
visiting friends in Bangkok and decided to catch the train north to Nong Khai
on the Thai-Lao border and spend
a week in Laos. I took a room
in a hotel on the Mekong, not much more than a large creek at that point. At a
local pizzeria I met a young Lao woman who spoke English and, with her husband,
ran a jackleg tour service. He had a car. [..]
At one point we stopped in Vientiane to talk to some of the young
woman´s friends (I forget her name). They spoke English. She mentioned
something about before her father died. What happened to him, I asked?
How many Laos did we butcher for nothing, how many Vietnamese, how
many Cambodians? Millions, literally. For nothing. Nothing. How many
Iraqis? Afghans? Pakistanis? If any of it preserved my freedom, I am unaware of
it.
But please God, not Tuol Sleng, [http://www.tuolsleng.com/history.php] the torture operation set up by the KR in a former girls´ school. I went there many years later and wished I hadn´t. Far better to be raped and bayoneted.
[Image: Tuol Sleng The Pol Pot’s secret prison: 114 photographs on this site are from Pol Pot's secret prison, codenamed "S-21" during his genocidal rule (1975-79). Between 1-2 million Cambodians – and many thousands of foreigners – were starved to death, tortured, or killed, during this reign of terror. When the Vietnamese Army invaded in 1979 the S-21 prison staff fled, leaving behind thousands of written and photographic records. God knows how many of these poor innocents were tortured to death in Tuol Sleng, a place the CIA would love. After the war a friend found a picture of a former girlfriend in the death records. We are, however, still free.]
The rest of the planet pays a high price for our freedom. This is no doubt justified because we are the city of the hill, a light to the nations, bringing democracy and human rights to a globe thirsty for improvement by us. I have just never seen it. I like the people at the Legion halls, at birthdays for the Marine Corps, but I may be a little less proud of what we did.
Fred's Biography: As He Tells
It -Fred, a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past, has worked on staff
for Army Times, The Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, Federal Computer Week,
and The Washington Times. www.fredoneverything.net/
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============
HERE A MARINE TALKS HIS EXPERIENCE:
VETERANS DAY. FROM
ANOTHER ANGLE By Fred Reed. November 12, 2013
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36824.htm
[A Marine talks his experience. Here only extracts]
[…]
And then for Marines there are the wars, which we
always have. I don´t know why.
For most at the Tratoria, it was I suppose Southeast Asia. We had talk of sacrifice and duty. There is
a romance to war …
[…]
So I understand when veterans get
together and give patriotic speeches at a thousand Legion halls around the world.
Yet, listening to the speeches, I wondered at the near total disconnect from
reality. We Marines, I heard over and over, had made sacrifices “to
protect our freedom.” Made sacrifices or been sacrificed? How exactly, I
wondered, had remote wars against primitive societies on the other side of the
world protected our freedom? As so often, I marveled at the automatic assumption that America
is somehow more free than other places. How more free than Switzerland,
Australia, Japan, Germany, or Holland? I feel freer in Mexico than in the growing police state to the
north.
“He died fighting the
Americans.”
Wrong question.
Cambodia: Another
sleepy land of jungle and silence and horrendous death, thanks to protecting
our freedom. During the
siege, I lived on a rooftop apartment at 98 Jawaharlal Nehru Street, shared
with Steve Hedder, a young stringer for Time or Newsweek, I forget which. Half
of it was patio, open to the sky.
[..]
But please God, not Tuol Sleng, [http://www.tuolsleng.com/history.php] the torture operation set up by the KR in a former girls´ school. I went there many years later and wished I hadn´t. Far better to be raped and bayoneted.
[Image: Tuol Sleng The Pol Pot’s secret prison: 114 photographs on this site are from Pol Pot's secret prison, codenamed "S-21" during his genocidal rule (1975-79). Between 1-2 million Cambodians – and many thousands of foreigners – were starved to death, tortured, or killed, during this reign of terror. When the Vietnamese Army invaded in 1979 the S-21 prison staff fled, leaving behind thousands of written and photographic records. God knows how many of these poor innocents were tortured to death in Tuol Sleng, a place the CIA would love. After the war a friend found a picture of a former girlfriend in the death records. We are, however, still free.]
The rest of the planet pays a high price for our freedom. This is no doubt justified because we are the city of the hill, a light to the nations, bringing democracy and human rights to a globe thirsty for improvement by us. I have just never seen it. I like the people at the Legion halls, at birthdays for the Marine Corps, but I may be a little less proud of what we did.
What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments or open: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36824.htm
============
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