Memorial Day, the day we recognize and honor the fallen soldiers - and the survivors of war.
The war of Iraq might have stipulated 80,000 civilian deaths and casualties in its five years existence, and thousands of deaths on the military side. Soldiers die, that is what they go to war for. It is their duty and commitment. They bought into it. It was always this way, it will continue to be that way. Soldiers are the suckers of the establishment, the rulers extension of force. I feel sorry for their ambiguous ambitions.
Yes, it is important to preserve your country, your life, your culture - and the military can have a vital role in this. The role of soldiers in this scenario play a vital role. But the arms of the octopus of US ambitions has reached its limits, the beast has been washed ashore. The states we live in is the state of the United States (somewhat united)of America. That is what we should care most about. Forget the military bases all around the globe, the ones in South Korea, the German ones, the splattered ones on unknown islands, the camps we maintain in Eastern Europe who rival Guantanamo Bay. Let's forget or foreclose the trillions we spend annually on death and war, payed by the idiot taxpayers like me and instead invest into life, the soil we live on, and not all this foreign territory - unless of course we wish to go down as the second Roman Empire.
There is no real conclusion to this post. It is history to be watched. We will see. I just have to note that the misery in Asia has peaked to levels in human casualties that rivaled in five days what has happened in Iraqi in five years. This is not a moral statement, it is only an observation.
We must endure!
Tuesday, May 27
the parade must go on
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9 comments:
well said. do you think we'll ever learn, as a species, to celebrate peace with the passion we celebrate war?
NO!
but we must keep trying "fiddler" ...
I agree, yes it is important to preserve your country, your life and so on and the military have a role in this, but I thought you may also be interested in the world peace index. It’s only in its second year of publication and granted even with their use of 24 different statistical indicators, there’s a high degree of subjectivity but it’s a start. should it be of interest have a look at and let’s know what you think? Overall; 2008 lightly more peaceful.
here
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php
Best wishes
Thoughtful observations, Zee. When I think of wars and military spending, I wonder what the world would be like if all that wealth was invested instead.
But it is even more than that- the amount of wealth that is squandered in this country amazes me. Something like 200 *billion* dollars has been "lost" by our financial institutions because of bad lending and investment decisions.
All the promise and optimism America offered the world in the 20th century is fast disappearing in the 21st.
You know, I've been watching the increasing number of advertisements for our youth to join the military. It makes me mad, because it portrays what I believe to be a misleading idea that joining the military will lead to a prosperous future. It just doesn't seem true anymore. I feel it's more a recruitment for suicide. There hasn't been much glory for our faithful troops in recent history. I appreciate the feeling of patriotism and country loyalty that is behind every soldier, but these wars on terror do not do them justice.
...always will be cannon fodders...
and what will be happend with the oil increase?
Brazil found the 2 nd bigger oil field and Venezuela is now the 1 st
so may be not more wars in Mid East
and the fellas start to looking up down here
a while ago i had a very interesting conversation with a man of japanese descent in a book store. i was looking for George Monbiot's 'Heat - How to Keep the Planet from Burning'. the aforementioned gentleman worked in the bookstore. they were out of stock in that item, so he was showing me some other things of interest. he was perhaps in his late 50's, spoke softly and with much considered thought behind his words. the conversation about peak oil, oil reserves, carbon dioxide levels, etc, quite naturally lead to the subject of America's military presence in the middle east. what he thought was most tragic about that, was the demographics of WHO the footsoldiers are. regardless of country of origin, they tend to be the strongest, the fittest, and the most hard working of the young and the poor, who see the military as perhaps the only way to better themselves. this, to him was the worst squandering of a country's national resources possible.
so, not only does war wreak havoc on our profit margins as nations, it's adjusting the gene pool.
Very interesting link indeed, Lindsay!
just wanted you to know that i moved, yet again: http://coffeedujour.blogspot.com
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