This Memorial Day, the media is doing its usual sacralizing of war. Instead, this should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost a hundred thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners.
And yet, people still get teary-eyed when politicians take the stage today to talk about their devotion to the troops.
Rather than parades, it would be better to celebrate this holiday like the British used to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day – by burning politicians in effigy, or a reasonable facsimile.
Boston antiwar activist John Walsh has an excellent piece here on the media’s complicity on turning Memorial Day into pro-government hokum.
A legitimate and honest foreign policy would be easy for people to understand- it wouldn’t need to be propped up or embellished with talk of “defending our rights and freedoms”, etc.
Think of your local fire dept.- it serves a clear-cut purpose, no need for people to repeat phrases or slogans in order to justify its existence.
We don’t claim that firefighters protect our rights and freedoms- as if they are part of some kind of civil rights organization.
Instead of reaching for an honest understanding of US foreign policy- we take the easy route by just making the blanket claim that we send “The Troops” to distant lands to protect or defend American rights and freedoms. Whatever the era, whatever the mission, whatever the result- defending American rights and freedoms has been the reason to deploy the US Armed Forces. This groupthink is our comfort zone.
True that, Alex. When I need a good laugh, I tell people that we shouldn’t have gotten involved in World War 1. Invariably someone displays their ignorance of that war by declaring, “…but if we hadn’t we’d all be speaking German!”