maunakuma, welcome to my world.
Well, thanks, but this thread is putting forward and argument that is ultimately going to lose at this time. The thesis that we respect people for the merits of their deeds and not their title or profession applies in many areas, but not with soldiers. Even if they are stuck in some stinking pit doing terrible things on our behalf, we are taught from a very young age to give our support no matter what because they choose to go and serve the country and put their lives on the line.
Our society has benefited from this in the past. This belief is what has allowed us to form our empire and extend our power throughout the globe. Our hegemony is the reason why the US Dollar is the world's reserve currency. The problem with any empire is that it eventually bankrupts the States that try and maintain them. It happens every single time and it's happening now. The US charged these wars on the global credit card and we haven't even begun to pay for it. When this is combined with all of the other unfunded entitlement programs that have been stripped for wars and corporate welfare, it creates the financial perfect storm that will ruin us.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to this perfect storm, but I believe that one of the biggest is that Americans tend to support any war as long as they can't see it and it doesn't affect them. The State creates a veil over wars by controlling the information that people see.
The Alternative Media, Wikileaks, and the Internet are penetrating this. They are showing people that as we expand these wars into other countries and kill more people, we are never going to run out of enemies. And, as the anger in the region builds, in order to make any "progress" we need to become increasingly more brutal. And, as we get more brutal, the anger builds and we have even more enemies to fight. This is the fundamental nature of the wicked deathspiral that wipes out every Imperial State. And that suicidal nature is enabled by our unquestioning support of the people who are perpetrating the wars.
The argument that our society shouldn't support the wars or the people who fight in them makes logical sense because of the nature of our forces. Everyone choose to be there, for whatever reason. If the public disapproves of their actions and service, not only do the wars stop politically, but people stop volunteering for them en masse. If that happens, we voluntarily give up our world wide hegemony and we might be able to preserve our personal freedoms and our prosperity. If we continue on the deathspiral, however, we will most assuredly lose both of those things.
This argument loses because we haven't reached a tipping point. There are too few people who have internalized the true costs of this war and the ultimate price we are going to pay. As we travel down this road, and the expense mounts, and the bodies pile, and the police state that naturally grows in every failing empire builds, more and more people will start to see the nature of this thing.
When US citizens are taxed up front for the wars, when the dollar breaks and the economy doesn't function, when they try to conscript us, when US citizens cannot travel any where without being searched like a criminal, when the State cracks down on political dissidents, when the promised entitlement checks come in the form of IOUs, etc. When all of this happens, the whole thing comes crashing down and people are going to have to do some serious soul searching. We are going to have to choose to live in a free, prosperous, and peaceful society, or an impoverished imperial tyranny.
The argument that we shouldn't support the wars or the people who fight them is a loser for now, but time and the nature of this deathspiral makes it increasingly likely that it will be accepted. Until then, we race toward the cliff and listen to people tell us that there is no cliff. There will be some people who choose to ride this vehicle straight into the abyss rather then get honest with themselves. When the tipping point comes, the outcome will be decided by the numbers of intrepid and courageous individuals who decide to go against tradition and the reactionaries who simply refuse to own up to anything resembling personal responsibility.
I understand the part that I play in this symphony and I refuse to play a song of death. Don't go, don't kill is a way of telling others not to play this song.
