This is a piece I wrote a few years back to my son. I just poured out every possible reason I could think of to hopefully dissuade him from ever considering joining the military. It was a passionate outpouring over a two day period and I didn't worry about logical organization, grammar, etc.
I wove throughout the piece, my personal experiences & what I have learned over the past 30 years or so about the hidden history of America. I am scared to death that the Draft will be reinstated because the war mongers have obviously over-extended our military and won't be able to continue with their agenda of death and destruction without more cannon fodder.
I have tried to provide as many reasons and as much evidence as possible to convince anyone considering enlisting in the military that it would be a horrible mistake for not only their own physical, emotional, & mental well-being but also on moral and financial grounds.
Reasons Why A Young Person Should NOT Join the Military or Enter At Your Own Risk and Buyer Beware!
Far too many times our government has lied to us about the reasons for going to war and therefore you should be damn sure you have all the facts necessary to make an informed decision before you put your butt on the line. I am writing this not because I’m unpatriotic or anti-American but because I am a true patriot and not afraid to speak my mind. I criticize our government because just as a good parent criticizes and disciplines their children so they’ll mature into honorable men and women, I criticize the government in the hope that it too can learn from its mistakes. And as Thomas Jefferson said, it’s not only our right to hold our government accountable, it’s our duty as citizens of a democracy. I must confess though that the primary reason for writing this essay is the fact that I have a son just graduating from high school and I hope and pray that he won’t become just another sad statistic of yet another young person ground up and spit out of the military machine. I was in the lottery for the Vietnam War in 1971 and my number was something like 69. I wasn’t politically aware back then but when it got close to me being possibly sent to Vietnam, I trusted my gut instinct and kept going AWOL until I got out of the army with an Undesirable discharge.
Receiving this ‘bad’ discharge was morbidly humorous. So I wasn’t worthy of killing and possibly dying for my country? Yeah, I should’ve gone to Vietnam like the millions of other mostly poor white boys, Latinos, and Black young men who were exposed to the defoliant, Agent Orange, and when they came down with a variety of exotic medical problems and diseases, this ‘honorable’ government of ours at first denied that Agent Orange had even been used. And when the lie could no longer be hidden, the government denied its connection to all the health issues our returning soldiers and their families had to deal with.
The Pentagon and the federal government will deny responsibility for Agent Orange, the chemical weapons of the Gulf War, and the present use of depleted uranium until Hell freezes over! Why? Because if they admitted their responsibility it would open them up for a tidal wave of lawsuits and morally cut their legs off in terms of credibility with the general public. It would also seriously demoralize those now in the military services.
Another, ‘insignificant’ little factor that the military recruiters and television ads fail to mention in their sales pitches like ‘Be All That You Can Be!’ is the fact that once you sign that Faustian contract for your soul, you are in effect giving the military the right to use you like a lab rat or a guinea pig in whatever experimental programs they dream up. For example, the army thought it’d be interesting to see how soldiers fought when under the influence of powerful hallucinogens. Research for yourself what Timothy Leary had to say on this subject. And for a Hollywood version of it that was pretty horrific, see the movie, Jacob’s Ladder, with Tim Robbins.
Another example of our government and military’s total lack of care or concern for our health and welfare is the series of atomic blasts they forced our military personnel to expose themselves to so the Pentagon and its Dr. Mengele imitators could study the effects of atomic radiation on humans. Or how about the fact that the Pentagon sent our soldiers into Vietnam with the new M-16 which we dubbed the ‘Mighty Mattel’ because the stock was made by the toy manufacturer and these ‘toy weapons’ jammed up repeatedly and cost many boys their lives. I understand that they eventually worked out the ‘kinks.’
How about the fact that many of our soldiers currently in Iraq complain that they don’t even have flak jackets or have half of one? How many stories has ‘Sixty Minutes’ shown regarding various weapons systems, aircraft, tanks, etc. that were defective and cost our people their lives? Many soldiers who returned from Iraq after the Gulf War reported that they either didn’t have a gas mask issued to them or else they were defective! And one of the things that really makes me want to go emotionally ballistic is when I hear that AWOL chicken-hawk, spoiled, rich brat, George ‘Dubya’ Bush, say how proud he is of our young soldiers in Iraq and how he supports their efforts and their sacrifices but behind the scene he has cut their medical benefits and pay!
Two other movies I strongly recommend all those contemplating joining the military watch are, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Born on the Fourth of July.’ These movies will show you how well cared for you will be if you are unfortunate enough to be wounded in battle. Many VA hospitals are barbaric throw-backs to the Dark Ages and patients are forced to lay in their own feces and urine for hours. Rats and cockroaches often run the hell-holes and the VA nursing staff often treat the patients as annoying, sub-humans. Yeah, the government really appreciate your sacrifices!
Deception is another of the forms of lying that the government and the Pentagon have become very proficient at. Take the Vietnam War and how the Pentagon inflated the body counts for the North Vietnamese soldiers we killed and deliberately issued false lower numbers of our men who had been killed so as to keep the public in the dark. This clearly was an attempt by the powers that be to manipulate public opinion and keep them on the side of the pro-war hawks. And what strikes me as unbelievably callous and another clear example of the Pentagon and this administration’s attempts to deceive the American people is the fact that they won’t allow the coffins of our returning dead to be shown in the media, Bush hasn’t been to a single funeral of any of our fallen soldiers, and the military actively discourages the families of the dead servicemen and women from being there at Dover Air Field when their loved ones arrive. But Bush takes advantage of every opportunity to show the flag-draped coffins of the police and firemen who died on September 11th, in his political ads for his bid for another term as president. And this is the same commander-in-chief who cut the salaries of New York’s policemen and firemen. This is also the fearless leader of our nation who told the Environmental Protection Agency to falsify their reports on the air quality after the 9/11 attacks so people would return to the area and Wall Street would resume business as usual.
These corrupt politicians and military elites can only get away with all their deceptive practices with the assistance or collusion of the mainstream media. The powers that be learned a crucial lesson regarding the power of the media during the Vietnam War debacle. Even though the Pentagon attempted to control what the war correspondents saw and photographed by flying them in to combat zones after the fighting was done and only allowed them access to battle areas where the military had nothing to hide. But, there were a handful of journalists who had integrity and refused to be spoon-fed the public relations propaganda dished out by the Pentagon. These brave souls found their own transportation and went to some of the restricted areas and reported back to us the truth of what they witnessed. This was very damaging to the politicians’ and the Pentagon brass’ images. But what was perhaps most damaging of all was the nightly news broadcasts which showed the steady stream of body bags and flag-draped coffins of our dead.
And this is why they keep such a tight lid on the images of war ever since Vietnam because eventually the sleeping giant of the American public will waken from its long slumber and ask, ‘if we’re doing so well in this war then why are so many of our soldiers coming home dead or severely wounded? The power brokers know that once the majority of American citizens turn against a war, their days of war-profiteering are numbered. Personally, I feel it was so outlandish that for our invasion of Iraq, reporters had to be approved of by Pentagon officials and ‘embedded’ in specific military units. The muzzling and shackling of journalists during our times of war and in peace time as well has caused America to much more resemble those totalitarian nations we were always told we were so morally superior to. We have allowed these lying and morally repugnant people we call our ‘leaders,’ to almost totally erode our precious freedoms and the bedrock of those freedoms is contained in the First Amendment to our Constitution, which contains the ‘Freedom of the Press.’ It’s extremely important to recall these words from Thomas Jefferson, ‘Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.’
Now I don’t know about you but I’m a little confused because we are in Iraq and the latest PR rhetoric is that we are there to establish democracy yet while doing so, here in the U.S. the government is subverting our ‘democracy,’ by intimidating, restricting, and deliberately misleading our media? Also related to the silencing of our media whether they are cooperating partners in the subterfuge or whether they have little choice but to go along is the issue of censoring the images and the numbers of Iraqis killed and wounded including the large percentage of innocent women, children, and the elderly! Or, how about our soldiers who signed up for a specific amount of time and are about to return to the U.S. only to learn that the Pentagon has extended their tours of duty and they have no choice in the matter? Wouldn’t this be the same as false advertising by the recruiters or be condemned by community standards as deceptive business practices? After all, it is a contract that you sign to enter the military.
And similar to the indefinite length of service an enlistee has to deal with, is this indefinite ‘War on Terrorism’ which gave the current Right-wing extremists and reactionaries in the White House just what they were looking for i.e. an excuse to wage war on all the social welfare agencies and legislation passed and established over the last one hundred years. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Reactionary Right were desperately searching everywhere for a new national enemy to justify the continuation of the transfer of the money of all the poor, the working class, the middle class, and those on the lower end of the upper class to the super-rich via what we laughingly call the ‘Defense Industry.’
Before the terrorists came along and assisted their buddies in the White House by providing them with a rationale for invading and attacking any nation they so choose to, we had an interim and still on-going ‘War on Drugs.’ I recently watched a documentary on Free Speech TV regarding this ‘War on Drugs,’ and it was deeply disturbing because I had what I believe to be a profound insight. Our government is funneling billions of dollars into Columbia’s war against drug growers and smugglers but upon close examination you will discover that most of the drug traffickers in Columbia are involved in the trade because the money enables them to buy the weaponry necessary to fight the corrupt Columbian government backed by the U.S. A lot of the drug dealers are Leftists fighting for social justice, fair wages, the right to form unions, and etc. Coca-Cola for a case in point, has hired assassins to threaten, torture, and kill union organizers. Once again our military forces and our tax dollars are being used to repress democratic aspirations of the poor and the disenfranchised under the guise of championing democracy. I believe the main Leftist group is called FARC and they too have committed crimes against humanity as in their kidnapping of foreigners for ransom. If the foreigners work for the U.S. military, government of the U.S., or the corporations exploiting Columbia, I can understand them being kidnapped. But, if the people being kidnapped are innocent tourists or are there as teachers or health workers, it is morally reprehensible for them to suffer the kidnapping trauma.
And speaking of morality, if the wars and all the other things our government representatives are up to around the world are just or morally the right sort of things to be doing, then why is it necessary to lie, hide, and deceive us, the public, about what’s going on? The insight I had was that it seems that our forty year ‘Cold War’ against the Communists, all the little excursions into places like Haiti, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Iraq, etc., the War on Drugs, and our current open-ended ‘War on Terrorism,’ are in effect really a war on all the poor and working classes in every nation on earth? I know this sounds rather extreme but I bet that if you study the story behind the official ‘Newspeak’ handed to us, you’ll see a common pattern in country after country of the U.S. assisting the corrupt and helping to undermine the poor in their dreams of a more equitable social arrangement!
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m in no way saying the Communists were the good guys! What I am saying is that we have all been so grieviously wronged and ripped off and betrayed--- Americans and Russians! Neither side gives a damn about democracy, communism, freedom, or anything except power and all the material prosperity that it entails. I was recently reflecting on the reasons we were given for getting involved in that long nightmare of a quagmire called the Vietnam War--- though never officially declared a war by our Congress---and as I recall, we were on a noble mission to save the world from Communism? Remember the Domino Theory? It was claimed that if we didn’t intervene in Vietnam and it became Communist, it would act as a domino and a ripple-effect of all the surrounding countries becoming communist and falling like dominoes would result. If the communists were our mortal enemies and wickedness personified, then answer me this, why almost directly after our defeat in Vietnam did we reach out to Communist China and become trading partners? What did all our boys die for or come home with a leg or an arm missing?
I say that our government and military are really the servants of the global corporations who are shoving globalization down our throats not to make this a more democratic or equitable world for all but rather to consolidate their power to such an extent that they need never worry again about the pesky peons demanding food and shelter! The illegally placed president I affectionately refer to as the Bush-whacker, paints his ‘War on Terror’ in very simplistic black and white terms i.e. ‘You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists and against us,’ because this distracts people from the deeper issues and the gray areas by keeping us emotionally upset and bent on revenge. The Bush and Cheney cabal have several reasons for the takeover of Iraq; 1) to establish a permanent military base at a strategic position in the Middle East, 2)to control the second largest oil fields on the planet, 3) to seek revenge for the attempt on George Sr.’s life, etc. etc. etc.
Besides the immorality of our invasion and occupation of Iraq is the pragmatic matter of what our presence there and our open-ended ‘War on Terrorism’ is doing to our economy. Many conservatives were elated with the collapse of Russia and credited Reagan with bringing it about. Well, I disagree and believe that Russia’s economy imploded due to their forty year competition with us in the insane arms race. Russia’s economy simply fell apart before ours i.e. they couldn’t maintain their infrastructure of housing, health care, education, roads, bridges, etc. because they had spent so much in trying to keep up with us in military weaponry. A lot of Americans aren’t aware that we used to be the largest creditor nation but now we are the biggest debtor nation i.e. we owe more money than any other country. In other words, we are in hock up to our eyeballs. I recently found out that it is mostly Asian nations we have borrowed from and China is the nation we are most indebted to.
When I heard this, things suddenly added up that I couldn’t understand previously. For instance I couldn’t comprehend why we didn’t do something when the Chinese government killed and jailed thousands of Chinese students who protested in Tinnamin Square for democracy and even had a Statue of Liberty as a rallying point? Another betrayal on our part towards the promise of democracy was when we stood by and again did nothing when China invaded Tibet, murdered hundreds of Buddhist priests, destroyed ancient cultural artifacts, and forced the Dalai Llama to go into permanent exile. But then I shouldn’t have been surprised because we’re a ‘Christian’ nation and we don’t give a shit about the world’s other major religions such as Buddhism and the Muslim faith. Yet time and time again our president stands in front of the t.v. cameras and proclaims for all the world to hear, ‘America stands for freedom, democracy, and basic human values.’ The rest of the world has seen example after example of Bush’s hypocrisy and they don’t buy his empty rhetoric for one minute. It seems the only people who have fallen for Bush’s B.S. are the American people. I have been to Europe several times and listening to their perspectives on America has been quite an eye-opener for me. When you peel away all the layers of lies and deception that our politicians and corporate spokesmen have wrapped themselves in, at the core is one concern and one concern only i.e. the protection of their wealth and whatever it takes to ensure their pursuit of more wealth.
Let's return to the issue of our 'Defense Budget,' and this is a misnomer and a joke because the word 'budget' implies a practical balancing of one's finances i.e. paying for the necessities of food, shelter, medical, insurance, etc. and staying within the limits of how much money you have to spend. I forget the guy's name but I saw a PBS program with him and he worked in the Pentagon's accounting department I believe for like 30 years? Well, he's been telling Congress for decades about the deliberate fraud of 'Defense contractors' in purposely underbidding the costs of various weapons programs and once they were awarded the contract then gouging the taxpayers and charging millions and sometimes billions over what they had originally stated. And don't forget that many of these multi-million dollar projects turned out to have serious defects or never even worked at all and cost the lives of U.S. servicemen and women!
This truth-teller also pointed out a very significant deception used by all the corrupt politicians which is the fact that to really conduct an effective war on terror, all these expensive weapons systems are useless. What is needed to wage this war--- which itself is an incorrect term because you can't wage a war against an invisible enemy. What we need to wage should more accurately be referred to as a criminal investigation and we need agents well-trained in the languages, customs, geography, religion, etc. of the terrorists we are hunting. But of course this doesn't require the billions of dollars that our military/industrial complex wants to continue pouring into their pockets so they keep spreading the fear and the lies with their million dollar public relations firms, advertising agencies, 'Spin-doctors,' and hired guns i.e. ex-military officers, journalists, economists, professors, and etc.! (just watch the FOX network)
Why should you go fight in a war that Bush started with no provocation on the part of the Iraqis and based on false premises and blatant lies that started with 'we have to strip Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction,' which then evolved into 'there are definite links between Saddam and Al Quida,' to the current line of crap 'we're bringing democracy to Iraq because we're compassionate and caring defenders and promoters of democracy?' Yeah, Bush and his brother Jeb too, are real believers in democracy and proof of this was evidenced last year in Miami at the demonstrations against the IMF, the World Bank, and the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). Recall that $80 billion or so that Bush requested for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Well the Bush-baby gave $7 million of it to his brother, the governor of Florida---who helped rig his election voting scam to 'win' the oval office---to hire cops from dozens of Florida counties and they illegally and brutally shot, beat, gassed, jailed, and ripped off the cameras and etc. of thousands of Americans who came to Miami to exercise their democratic right to protest the policies of their government! And on top of this travesty of justice, there was some scandal regarding their not spending the money granted by Congress for the reasons given in their request? I forget the details but this just shows to me that this wimp in the White House must see himself as back in the wild West where the only law was the gun and they could do as they pleased i.e. run rough-shod over our Bill of Rights and every law including international law and the Geneva Convention i.e. Rumsfield said the Geneva Convention rules are outdated and the U.S. doesn't have to observe them. Gee, I wonder where those soldiers who tortured and humiliated and killed so many Iraqi prisoners, got the notion they could do what they pleased with their captives? Or, what about that 'democratic' value or assumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law?
Do you believe that every single person U.S. forces arrested was guilty? Did these arresting officers have magical powers so superior to everyday cops and detectives? Is this a new part of basic training? I heard that many of the guards working in the prisons had no experience or training to be a prison guard. Our C.I.A. does have a long track record of being amongst the elite in the fine art of torture and breaking people to gain information! Will anyone hold our C.I.A. accountable? Hell No! It’s always a matter of ‘National Security’ i.e. whatever the powers that be claim, and suits their hidden agenda.
I’m in no way excusing the sick and barbaric treatment of the Iraqi prisoners but I am arguing that these young military personnel didn’t invent these methods themselves! Just as in Vietnam in the most notorious case that we were told about i.e. the My Lai Massacre when the Pentagon tried to lay complete responsibility on Lt. William Calley, the Pentagon again is saying it was just 6 or 7 bad seeds. They really think we’re all stupid and have absolutely no memory. By the way, I just learned something amazing the other day i.e. Colin Powell was delegated to investigate the My Lai Massacre by his superiors in the Pentagon and he summed up his ‘investigation’ with ‘Nothing Happened!’
Why should you join the military, follow the orders of your superiors to perform illegal and immoral acts, and when it comes to light your ‘superiors’ leave you to hang alone and be the fall-guy? The majority of young people who join the military, do so because they can’t find work in their own country because Bush gives tax breaks to those corporations who close down here and put us out of work and go overseas for cheaper labor. Oh the recruiters are masters of deceit. They’ll promise you the moon to get you to sign that contract. They told me that if I wanted to be a clerk-typist I’d have to sign up for another year. Lie! I didn’t even have to go to the normal advanced training that just about everyone goes through after their basic training in the Army. I was a clerk typist as soon as I got to Ft. Sam in San Antonio. Almost everyone I’ve ever known or met that was in the military, didn’t have hardly any use for the skills they acquired in the military in the work world where they looked for a job. In other words, their time in the military was dead time just as if they’d been in prison and out of the work force. Hence, wherever they found work, most started at the bottom. This is a sinister lie the recruiters perpetuate and perhaps one of their key selling points. Most of the gullible young fall for this tactic and believe when they get out they’ll walk into a challenging job and a good paying career. Sadly, most of us find ourselves pumping gas or flipping burgers.
I saw an expose on Bill Moyers’ PBS t.v. program on 4/16/04, a pitiful and disrespectful example of yet another way our military and political elite treat our young men and women who risk their lives fighting for this country. The story dealt with the fact that many families whose husbands are over in Iraq and in harm’s way but because the military pays them so little, their wives and children have to go to Food Banks and rely on the charity of their community! We really honor our men and women serving their country don’t we? Our loving and brilliant military and political elite instead spend your billions of tax dollars---of which almost none of the super-rich pay a dollar---to hire mercenaries who were trained in the U.S. military and upon completion of their tours of duty are hired by ‘sub-contractors’ and make something like $100,000 per year. I also read recently in the Oregonian newspaper that many National Guardsmen were either not receiving their full salary or none at all. Yeah, join the army and ‘Be all that you can be!’
‘All that you can be’ I must admit is a very clever bit of propaganda. It immediately appeals to that ‘egalitarian’ principle we supposedly all believe in. You know, we all have an equal opportunity to be whatever we choose to if we just knuckle-down and persevere? How can we have an equal opportunity or there be a level playing field if public schooling is so vastly inferior to some of those elite, private academies? I contend that you wouldn’t be so severely limited in your options after graduating high school if you had a truly good quality education. How many of the rich kids going to those Ivy League colleges, join the military or if they do, how many see real action on the battle-front? Just to show you how desperate the Army was and probably still is for well-educated or somewhat intelligent recruits or enlistees, when I was in basic training and we’d taken a battery of written tests for the first 3 or 4 days we’d been there, they took me and 4 or 5 other guys out of our company to a meeting with several high-ranking officers whose ranks I had trouble figuring out.
Anyway, talk about high-pressure salesmanship, this was mind-blowing and ego-inflating to the max. They basically told us that we could be stationed wherever we wanted to be in the world and they would train us in whatever M.O.S. (Military Occupational Specialty) we wanted if we’d re-up (extend our contracted tour of duty’s amount of time) to six years I believe? I couldn’t see myself as being capable of sending men to certain death which as an officer you might sometime have to do. They wanted to send us to O.C.S. (Officer Candidates School) and I didn’t even want to be a squad leader. As in the military, it’s the same it seems in this corporate business world that dictates everything about who we are, how we’re suppose to behave, talk, think, dress, etc., the less you rock-the-boat and the more incompetent you are and the better you are at ass-kissing, the higher up that so-called ‘ladder of success.’ I saw the army’s wise use of their manpower when I saw guys who had master’s degrees picking up cigarette butts, and not for discipline or punishment.
I heartily recommend that you read ‘The Underground History of American Education’ by John Taylor Gatto if you want to really know just how and how extensively the government and the corporate robber barons have screwed us all with the public educational system they designed and established. I have dissected this book and I’m using it in the current section of the book I am writing because it is a gold mine of utterly unbelievable machinations done by the powerful and the influential to deliberately give the vast majority of Americans a dumbed-down education so we’d be obedient little workers and consumers. Are you willing to risk and possibly sacrifice your life and limb for an ‘Establishment’ that sees itself as God-like and predetermines your future and condemns you to the life of an automaton on their assembly lines in their factories? A life that causes many of us to turn to alcohol or drugs for temporary escape from this kind of reality?
Or should you risk all for a government that deregulated dozens of industries such as the Savings and Loan industry which during Reagan’s reign went bankrupt or defaulted on tens of thousands of senior citizens and wiped out their life savings? Then just a few years ago, Ken Lay of ENRON, Bush’s buddy, did the same thing but this time to people’s pension plans and stocks. ENRON was only one of tens of dozens of corporations who screwed us once again on a grand scale. These kinds of business practices can only flourish in an atmosphere of corruption and with the politicians and regulatory agencies looking the other way. There’s another great book just out called Perfectly Legal and the author points out that something like 60% of our corporations have paid absolutely no taxes for several years by claiming their headquarters are in places like the Bahamas and yet they still enjoy all the rights of our legal system, the protection of our police and military, etc. Does this strike you as fair or egalitarian? Here is the dictionary definition of ‘egalitarian,’ you decide; ‘a belief in human equality especially with respect to social philosophy advocating the removal of inequalities among men.’
I can’t believe in leaders who are trying to eliminate the right for overtime pay for 40 million workers and at the same time make exceptions for those CEOs who make over $10 million per year to shelter as much as they want in their 401K pension plans while the rest of us are limited to something like $13,000 per year. In fact, believe it or not, I also recently learned that Bush cut the funding for the IRS program delegated to go after corporate tax evaders and at the same time increased the funding for the IRS program delegated to go after individuals evading paying their taxes. No, I can’t believe in such ‘leaders,’ and if I can’t believe in them, I’m sure as hell not going to risk my life because they say it’s my patriotic or moral duty! To these bastards, loyalty is a one-way street i.e. we owe it to them but they have no such obligation to us. They think they are our feudal lords and we are at their mercy, their choice, and are here to serve them as peasants serve their masters!
And the masters’ children don’t have to know the horrors of war. Our current bush-whacking president scored one point above the minimum score required to get into the Texas Air National Guard and yet his name was moved to the top of the list of those eligible and there were hundreds of other candidates who scored far higher than ‘Dubya’ and there was only one slot left. Just coincidentally, George Sr. had a friend at the time who placed a call and got junior in the Air Guard and even more amazing, when junior became governor of Texas he appointed this old friend of dad’s to run the Texas lottery---and he was convicted of corruption and fired from the lottery commission a short while later.
Trip on this fact too, junior didn’t show up for duty in Texas for 8 months and was supposedly given permission to go to Alabama but he can’t provide any documentation to corroborate this or give anyone to testify in his behalf. Yet when I was AWOL from the army, after 30 days the FBI came to my mom’s house and arrested me. No, I know this is an aberration and we really do have an equal system of justice and opportunity in this country.
And speaking of citizens, are we really still citizens of a democracy? It seems to me that with the passage of the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security bill, we have forfeited just about all those rights in the Bill of Rights? The Thought Police can demand that librarians and bookstore owners give them the lists of the books we borrow or buy. The Secret Police can break in and arrest you wherever and whenever they want to and you have no right to a lawyer, to be told of the charges against you, etc. There is absolutely no such thing as privacy anymore. They can enter your home without a warrant and go through all your things including your computer and you may never even know they were there. They can spy on your e-mail, regular mail, phone calls, whatever they want.
I borrowed the term, ‘the Thought Police,’ from George Orwell’s masterpiece, ‘1984.’ Why do you think the authorities are so interested in what we read? Are terrorists so stupid that they’d walk up to a librarian or a bookstore clerk and say, ‘could you please direct me to the section on bomb-building?’ Common sense will tell you that any terrorist wouldn’t give their real name or leave any trail that would lead back to themselves i.e. they’d copy whatever information they found useful or they’d purchase it by mail with a phony address or something. I know I’m going to probably sound like a conspiracy nut or something but as Michael Parenti said, ‘Conspiracy theories aren’t always theories.’ I theorize that the secret police want to know what we read because they believe it will lead them to those of us who could possibly pose a threat to the status quo by spreading dangerous ideas like social justice, democracy, freedom, no special breaks for the rich, etc. etc. etc.
The powerful are some of the most paranoid people you’d never want to meet. I don’t know why they’re over-reacting to such an extent? Their gutting of the traditional public school curriculum has been nearly 100% effective in producing a nation of illiterates and functionally literate. They have censored, distorted, and left out so much of the true history of America that we truly have become a ‘Nation of Sheep.’ Orwell wrote prophetically in 1948 when he published ‘1984,’ ‘those who control the past, control the present and those who control the present control the future.’ Think about it. When they rearrange the facts in our history textbooks aren’t they controlling the past? And when they control the major mainstream media aren’t they controlling the present? Therefore it’s a no-brainer i.e. they control our futures. Remember how the Pentagon controls the reporters writing about and covering our military actions around the planet!
The power elite hide the facts from us because they know that most of what they’re doing is immoral and would outrage us if it were to be revealed. And speaking of ‘revealing,’ I was dumb-founded awhile back when I heard that Bush was joking around and looked under his desk and said, ‘no, no weapons of mass destruction there,’ and then he looked out the window of the Oval Office and said, ‘nope, no weapons of mass destruction there either,’ and then he laughed. My God! What kind of heartless bastard is he? How insensitive and disrespectful can he be to all of our people he sent to Iraq under a shroud of lies and manipulation of our emotions i.e. patriotism, and our fears i.e. the terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming. (in my day it was, the commies are coming, the commies are coming)
This is the miscreant (one who behaves criminally or viciously) who calls himself a ‘Compassionate Conservative’ and declares he is on a holy mission from God to destroy evil. This is the man whose father as president before him and during the Gulf War urged the Iraqis to rise up against Saddam and when they did, he abandoned them and let them be slaughtered by Saddam. Our government supplied Saddam with the weapons of mass destruction which he used to murder tens of thousands of his Kurdish citizens and we didn’t raise a voice of protest because Saddam was our man. And now these same hypocritical bastards repeat over and over how heinous a crime that was back then but conveniently don’t tell the public because it’s left out of the newscasts.
What about our ambassador, Madeline Albright, who when questioned about the 500,000 or so Iraqi children who had died due to the U.S. imposed sanctions against Iraq over the intervening years between the Gulf War and our present invasion of Iraq said, ‘I think that’s an acceptable sacrifice.’ These heathens call themselves Christians and claim the moral high ground?
Another topic which I believe shows our leaders for the immoral, belly-crawling reptiles they are is the claim that Nixon and Kissinger promised the Communist Vietnamese after we left Vietnam that they’d pay a ransom for our P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s that were being held and then chose to reneg on the deal and left our men there to rot. I can’t substantiate the charge but after so many examples of our government’s treachery, I have no trouble believing it possible of them.
I feel this administration is a bunch of bush-leaguers and are just as cowardly as bush-whackers who shoot men in the back because they don’t have the courage to fight fair! Some critics have even proposed that we sent the weapons inspectors into Iraq to make sure as possible that there weren’t any weapons of mass destruction before we invaded to try to keep our casualties at a minimum and give the public a quick, clean victory? And this is another reason why the term ‘Military Intelligence’ is an oxymoron!
Something else occurred to me while reflecting on U.S. immorality and that is, why, if we are so morally righteous and just, did we wait so long before we entered both World War I and World War II? As far as I’m concerned, the final nail in the coffin of those who shout that the U.S. has always been the defender of freedom and democracy is the simple list of most of the world’s most brutal and sadistic dictators whom our military, C.I.A., and etc. have given millions of dollars to and have trained their secret police in exotic and unbelievably inhumane techniques of torture. And by the way, our military has been used repeatedly to invade these countries and put down the poor who were revolting against their dictators. These dictators torture, jail, and kill students, the teachers, the professors, the artists, the peasants, the journalists, the musicians, the writers, etc. who dare to speak out against the oppression of all the citizens.
I know this is not common knowledge because you won’t find this info in textbooks, mainstream t.v., radio, newspapers, or magazines. You have to make a significant amount of effort to search out alternative sources of information. Don’t just accept anything I say because you trust me or believe in me, find out for yourself because that’s the only truly worthwhile knowledge there is! Here is just a partial list of those dictators we have supported because they allow ‘our’ corporations to rape, pillage, and plunder their people and their natural resources---these are the ones I’m at least somewhat familiar with:
Idi Amin---Uganda
Batista---Cuba
Botha---South Africa
Chiang Kai-Shek---Taiwan
Christiani---El Salvador
Duvallier-Haiti
King Faud bin’ Abdul-Aziz---Saudi Arabia
Franco---Spain
Hitler---Germany
Marcos---Phillipines
Mobutu-Zaire
Noreiga---Panama
Shah-Iran
Papadopoulos---Greece
Chung Hee Park---South Korea
Pinochet---Chile
Pol Pot---Cambodia
Halie Salassie---Ethiopia
Somoza---Nicaragua
Ian Smith---Rhodesia
Stroessner-Paraguay
Suharto---Indonesia
Trujillo-Dominican Republic
Note also that we invaded Nicaragua and Haiti several times in the 20th century to make it safe for corporations like United Fruit. And Bush says we’re bringing democracy to Iraq? Can you see why the people of Iraq may not believe him?
In conclusion I say that on moral grounds ultimately I rest my case and that the ‘true’ (my truth) causes of terrorism as is generally understood i.e. individuals who have no respect for human life and commit suicide bomb attacks because they are religious fanatics and have no valid reason for their heinous crimes. This is brazen propaganda and indoctrination. By the way, did you know that the U.S. is the only country that has ever been labeled a terrorist nation by the International Court of Law? They won’t ever allow the deeper issues to be discussed in the national media because it would open a Pandora’s Box of misery and humiliation and disgrace for them if we ever start a public dialogue on war issues or domestic politics. I believe the ‘true’ causes for most terrorist attacks against Americans is in brief all the bloody and butcherous dictators we have helped or installed in power and taught them also how to maintain their power by a perpetual reign of terror conducted against the poor, the workers, students, etc. And the emotional, physical, psychological toll the oppressive and totalitarian vice-grip tactics take on the people because they are forced to work like dogs for pennies and under draconian conditions. They often slave away in factories owned by Americans and they can’t feed their children or find medical care. School is a luxury and only a rare few ever receive even a modicum of education. And be assured, I in no way condone acts of terrorism committed by other nations nor our own. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I’m simply trying to inform you of some of the reasons behind terrorism.
And let me be crystal clear, both democrats and republicans are guilty of allowing these immoral and anti-democratic practices continue to be done in our names as Americans. I believe deep down inside that most Americans are good people but as most humans when involved in immoral activities or military actions and etc. are without strong, ethical leadership and are encouraged to commit unethical or perverted or savage acts by that same weak leadership can do, they can slip into a being with ‘A Heart of Darkness.’
The powerful have in common with the devoutly religious, mastered the art of denial and have raised it to a level of perfection hard to imagine. If you doubt the universal possibility and prevalence of that barbarity that lurks within our souls, I suggest you read or watch The Lord of the Flies. And if after everything I have said, you still believe it right or worthwhile to join the military then, all I have to say is good luck and best wishes because it’s your life after all! I can’t blame the Iraqis for rejecting our brand of democracy!
Sincerely,
Rob DeLoss
First draft, May 17 – May 18, 2004
Reasons Why A Young Person Should NOT Join the Military or Enter At Your Own Risk and Buyer Beware!
Far too many times our government has lied to us about the reasons for going to war and therefore you should be damn sure you have all the facts necessary to make an informed decision before you put your butt on the line. I am writing this not because I’m unpatriotic or anti-American but because I am a true patriot and not afraid to speak my mind. I criticize our government because just as a good parent criticizes and disciplines their children so they’ll mature into honorable men and women, I criticize the government in the hope that it too can learn from its mistakes. And as Thomas Jefferson said, it’s not only our right to hold our government accountable, it’s our duty as citizens of a democracy. I must confess though that the primary reason for writing this essay is the fact that I have a son just graduating from high school and I hope and pray that he won’t become just another sad statistic of yet another young person ground up and spit out of the military machine. I was in the lottery for the Vietnam War in 1971 and my number was something like 69. I wasn’t politically aware back then but when it got close to me being possibly sent to Vietnam, I trusted my gut instinct and kept going AWOL until I got out of the army with an Undesirable discharge.
Receiving this ‘bad’ discharge was morbidly humorous. So I wasn’t worthy of killing and possibly dying for my country? Yeah, I should’ve gone to Vietnam like the millions of other mostly poor white boys, Latinos, and Black young men who were exposed to the defoliant, Agent Orange, and when they came down with a variety of exotic medical problems and diseases, this ‘honorable’ government of ours at first denied that Agent Orange had even been used. And when the lie could no longer be hidden, the government denied its connection to all the health issues our returning soldiers and their families had to deal with.
The Pentagon and the federal government will deny responsibility for Agent Orange, the chemical weapons of the Gulf War, and the present use of depleted uranium until Hell freezes over! Why? Because if they admitted their responsibility it would open them up for a tidal wave of lawsuits and morally cut their legs off in terms of credibility with the general public. It would also seriously demoralize those now in the military services.
Another, ‘insignificant’ little factor that the military recruiters and television ads fail to mention in their sales pitches like ‘Be All That You Can Be!’ is the fact that once you sign that Faustian contract for your soul, you are in effect giving the military the right to use you like a lab rat or a guinea pig in whatever experimental programs they dream up. For example, the army thought it’d be interesting to see how soldiers fought when under the influence of powerful hallucinogens. Research for yourself what Timothy Leary had to say on this subject. And for a Hollywood version of it that was pretty horrific, see the movie, Jacob’s Ladder, with Tim Robbins.
Another example of our government and military’s total lack of care or concern for our health and welfare is the series of atomic blasts they forced our military personnel to expose themselves to so the Pentagon and its Dr. Mengele imitators could study the effects of atomic radiation on humans. Or how about the fact that the Pentagon sent our soldiers into Vietnam with the new M-16 which we dubbed the ‘Mighty Mattel’ because the stock was made by the toy manufacturer and these ‘toy weapons’ jammed up repeatedly and cost many boys their lives. I understand that they eventually worked out the ‘kinks.’
How about the fact that many of our soldiers currently in Iraq complain that they don’t even have flak jackets or have half of one? How many stories has ‘Sixty Minutes’ shown regarding various weapons systems, aircraft, tanks, etc. that were defective and cost our people their lives? Many soldiers who returned from Iraq after the Gulf War reported that they either didn’t have a gas mask issued to them or else they were defective! And one of the things that really makes me want to go emotionally ballistic is when I hear that AWOL chicken-hawk, spoiled, rich brat, George ‘Dubya’ Bush, say how proud he is of our young soldiers in Iraq and how he supports their efforts and their sacrifices but behind the scene he has cut their medical benefits and pay!
Two other movies I strongly recommend all those contemplating joining the military watch are, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Born on the Fourth of July.’ These movies will show you how well cared for you will be if you are unfortunate enough to be wounded in battle. Many VA hospitals are barbaric throw-backs to the Dark Ages and patients are forced to lay in their own feces and urine for hours. Rats and cockroaches often run the hell-holes and the VA nursing staff often treat the patients as annoying, sub-humans. Yeah, the government really appreciate your sacrifices!
Deception is another of the forms of lying that the government and the Pentagon have become very proficient at. Take the Vietnam War and how the Pentagon inflated the body counts for the North Vietnamese soldiers we killed and deliberately issued false lower numbers of our men who had been killed so as to keep the public in the dark. This clearly was an attempt by the powers that be to manipulate public opinion and keep them on the side of the pro-war hawks. And what strikes me as unbelievably callous and another clear example of the Pentagon and this administration’s attempts to deceive the American people is the fact that they won’t allow the coffins of our returning dead to be shown in the media, Bush hasn’t been to a single funeral of any of our fallen soldiers, and the military actively discourages the families of the dead servicemen and women from being there at Dover Air Field when their loved ones arrive. But Bush takes advantage of every opportunity to show the flag-draped coffins of the police and firemen who died on September 11th, in his political ads for his bid for another term as president. And this is the same commander-in-chief who cut the salaries of New York’s policemen and firemen. This is also the fearless leader of our nation who told the Environmental Protection Agency to falsify their reports on the air quality after the 9/11 attacks so people would return to the area and Wall Street would resume business as usual.
These corrupt politicians and military elites can only get away with all their deceptive practices with the assistance or collusion of the mainstream media. The powers that be learned a crucial lesson regarding the power of the media during the Vietnam War debacle. Even though the Pentagon attempted to control what the war correspondents saw and photographed by flying them in to combat zones after the fighting was done and only allowed them access to battle areas where the military had nothing to hide. But, there were a handful of journalists who had integrity and refused to be spoon-fed the public relations propaganda dished out by the Pentagon. These brave souls found their own transportation and went to some of the restricted areas and reported back to us the truth of what they witnessed. This was very damaging to the politicians’ and the Pentagon brass’ images. But what was perhaps most damaging of all was the nightly news broadcasts which showed the steady stream of body bags and flag-draped coffins of our dead.
And this is why they keep such a tight lid on the images of war ever since Vietnam because eventually the sleeping giant of the American public will waken from its long slumber and ask, ‘if we’re doing so well in this war then why are so many of our soldiers coming home dead or severely wounded? The power brokers know that once the majority of American citizens turn against a war, their days of war-profiteering are numbered. Personally, I feel it was so outlandish that for our invasion of Iraq, reporters had to be approved of by Pentagon officials and ‘embedded’ in specific military units. The muzzling and shackling of journalists during our times of war and in peace time as well has caused America to much more resemble those totalitarian nations we were always told we were so morally superior to. We have allowed these lying and morally repugnant people we call our ‘leaders,’ to almost totally erode our precious freedoms and the bedrock of those freedoms is contained in the First Amendment to our Constitution, which contains the ‘Freedom of the Press.’ It’s extremely important to recall these words from Thomas Jefferson, ‘Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.’
Now I don’t know about you but I’m a little confused because we are in Iraq and the latest PR rhetoric is that we are there to establish democracy yet while doing so, here in the U.S. the government is subverting our ‘democracy,’ by intimidating, restricting, and deliberately misleading our media? Also related to the silencing of our media whether they are cooperating partners in the subterfuge or whether they have little choice but to go along is the issue of censoring the images and the numbers of Iraqis killed and wounded including the large percentage of innocent women, children, and the elderly! Or, how about our soldiers who signed up for a specific amount of time and are about to return to the U.S. only to learn that the Pentagon has extended their tours of duty and they have no choice in the matter? Wouldn’t this be the same as false advertising by the recruiters or be condemned by community standards as deceptive business practices? After all, it is a contract that you sign to enter the military.
And similar to the indefinite length of service an enlistee has to deal with, is this indefinite ‘War on Terrorism’ which gave the current Right-wing extremists and reactionaries in the White House just what they were looking for i.e. an excuse to wage war on all the social welfare agencies and legislation passed and established over the last one hundred years. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Reactionary Right were desperately searching everywhere for a new national enemy to justify the continuation of the transfer of the money of all the poor, the working class, the middle class, and those on the lower end of the upper class to the super-rich via what we laughingly call the ‘Defense Industry.’
Before the terrorists came along and assisted their buddies in the White House by providing them with a rationale for invading and attacking any nation they so choose to, we had an interim and still on-going ‘War on Drugs.’ I recently watched a documentary on Free Speech TV regarding this ‘War on Drugs,’ and it was deeply disturbing because I had what I believe to be a profound insight. Our government is funneling billions of dollars into Columbia’s war against drug growers and smugglers but upon close examination you will discover that most of the drug traffickers in Columbia are involved in the trade because the money enables them to buy the weaponry necessary to fight the corrupt Columbian government backed by the U.S. A lot of the drug dealers are Leftists fighting for social justice, fair wages, the right to form unions, and etc. Coca-Cola for a case in point, has hired assassins to threaten, torture, and kill union organizers. Once again our military forces and our tax dollars are being used to repress democratic aspirations of the poor and the disenfranchised under the guise of championing democracy. I believe the main Leftist group is called FARC and they too have committed crimes against humanity as in their kidnapping of foreigners for ransom. If the foreigners work for the U.S. military, government of the U.S., or the corporations exploiting Columbia, I can understand them being kidnapped. But, if the people being kidnapped are innocent tourists or are there as teachers or health workers, it is morally reprehensible for them to suffer the kidnapping trauma.
And speaking of morality, if the wars and all the other things our government representatives are up to around the world are just or morally the right sort of things to be doing, then why is it necessary to lie, hide, and deceive us, the public, about what’s going on? The insight I had was that it seems that our forty year ‘Cold War’ against the Communists, all the little excursions into places like Haiti, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Iraq, etc., the War on Drugs, and our current open-ended ‘War on Terrorism,’ are in effect really a war on all the poor and working classes in every nation on earth? I know this sounds rather extreme but I bet that if you study the story behind the official ‘Newspeak’ handed to us, you’ll see a common pattern in country after country of the U.S. assisting the corrupt and helping to undermine the poor in their dreams of a more equitable social arrangement!
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m in no way saying the Communists were the good guys! What I am saying is that we have all been so grieviously wronged and ripped off and betrayed--- Americans and Russians! Neither side gives a damn about democracy, communism, freedom, or anything except power and all the material prosperity that it entails. I was recently reflecting on the reasons we were given for getting involved in that long nightmare of a quagmire called the Vietnam War--- though never officially declared a war by our Congress---and as I recall, we were on a noble mission to save the world from Communism? Remember the Domino Theory? It was claimed that if we didn’t intervene in Vietnam and it became Communist, it would act as a domino and a ripple-effect of all the surrounding countries becoming communist and falling like dominoes would result. If the communists were our mortal enemies and wickedness personified, then answer me this, why almost directly after our defeat in Vietnam did we reach out to Communist China and become trading partners? What did all our boys die for or come home with a leg or an arm missing?
I say that our government and military are really the servants of the global corporations who are shoving globalization down our throats not to make this a more democratic or equitable world for all but rather to consolidate their power to such an extent that they need never worry again about the pesky peons demanding food and shelter! The illegally placed president I affectionately refer to as the Bush-whacker, paints his ‘War on Terror’ in very simplistic black and white terms i.e. ‘You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists and against us,’ because this distracts people from the deeper issues and the gray areas by keeping us emotionally upset and bent on revenge. The Bush and Cheney cabal have several reasons for the takeover of Iraq; 1) to establish a permanent military base at a strategic position in the Middle East, 2)to control the second largest oil fields on the planet, 3) to seek revenge for the attempt on George Sr.’s life, etc. etc. etc.
Besides the immorality of our invasion and occupation of Iraq is the pragmatic matter of what our presence there and our open-ended ‘War on Terrorism’ is doing to our economy. Many conservatives were elated with the collapse of Russia and credited Reagan with bringing it about. Well, I disagree and believe that Russia’s economy imploded due to their forty year competition with us in the insane arms race. Russia’s economy simply fell apart before ours i.e. they couldn’t maintain their infrastructure of housing, health care, education, roads, bridges, etc. because they had spent so much in trying to keep up with us in military weaponry. A lot of Americans aren’t aware that we used to be the largest creditor nation but now we are the biggest debtor nation i.e. we owe more money than any other country. In other words, we are in hock up to our eyeballs. I recently found out that it is mostly Asian nations we have borrowed from and China is the nation we are most indebted to.
When I heard this, things suddenly added up that I couldn’t understand previously. For instance I couldn’t comprehend why we didn’t do something when the Chinese government killed and jailed thousands of Chinese students who protested in Tinnamin Square for democracy and even had a Statue of Liberty as a rallying point? Another betrayal on our part towards the promise of democracy was when we stood by and again did nothing when China invaded Tibet, murdered hundreds of Buddhist priests, destroyed ancient cultural artifacts, and forced the Dalai Llama to go into permanent exile. But then I shouldn’t have been surprised because we’re a ‘Christian’ nation and we don’t give a shit about the world’s other major religions such as Buddhism and the Muslim faith. Yet time and time again our president stands in front of the t.v. cameras and proclaims for all the world to hear, ‘America stands for freedom, democracy, and basic human values.’ The rest of the world has seen example after example of Bush’s hypocrisy and they don’t buy his empty rhetoric for one minute. It seems the only people who have fallen for Bush’s B.S. are the American people. I have been to Europe several times and listening to their perspectives on America has been quite an eye-opener for me. When you peel away all the layers of lies and deception that our politicians and corporate spokesmen have wrapped themselves in, at the core is one concern and one concern only i.e. the protection of their wealth and whatever it takes to ensure their pursuit of more wealth.
Let's return to the issue of our 'Defense Budget,' and this is a misnomer and a joke because the word 'budget' implies a practical balancing of one's finances i.e. paying for the necessities of food, shelter, medical, insurance, etc. and staying within the limits of how much money you have to spend. I forget the guy's name but I saw a PBS program with him and he worked in the Pentagon's accounting department I believe for like 30 years? Well, he's been telling Congress for decades about the deliberate fraud of 'Defense contractors' in purposely underbidding the costs of various weapons programs and once they were awarded the contract then gouging the taxpayers and charging millions and sometimes billions over what they had originally stated. And don't forget that many of these multi-million dollar projects turned out to have serious defects or never even worked at all and cost the lives of U.S. servicemen and women!
This truth-teller also pointed out a very significant deception used by all the corrupt politicians which is the fact that to really conduct an effective war on terror, all these expensive weapons systems are useless. What is needed to wage this war--- which itself is an incorrect term because you can't wage a war against an invisible enemy. What we need to wage should more accurately be referred to as a criminal investigation and we need agents well-trained in the languages, customs, geography, religion, etc. of the terrorists we are hunting. But of course this doesn't require the billions of dollars that our military/industrial complex wants to continue pouring into their pockets so they keep spreading the fear and the lies with their million dollar public relations firms, advertising agencies, 'Spin-doctors,' and hired guns i.e. ex-military officers, journalists, economists, professors, and etc.! (just watch the FOX network)
Why should you go fight in a war that Bush started with no provocation on the part of the Iraqis and based on false premises and blatant lies that started with 'we have to strip Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction,' which then evolved into 'there are definite links between Saddam and Al Quida,' to the current line of crap 'we're bringing democracy to Iraq because we're compassionate and caring defenders and promoters of democracy?' Yeah, Bush and his brother Jeb too, are real believers in democracy and proof of this was evidenced last year in Miami at the demonstrations against the IMF, t