Is This What I served in the military for?

Back in the day 1975-1981

Back in the mid 1970s I was a young (early 20s) and idealistic Air Force brat/young military troop with a father who had had a long and honorable Air Force career as a twenty-year NCO.

He was in Radar Ops. Sitting on mountaintops watching the Evil Russkies during the Cold War. We lived all over the United States, and in Spain (Mallorca, before Generalissimo Franco closed down the base there) and Germany (if you want to know where we lived in Germany go watch Stripes - that little blinking cursor on their map in the Urban Assault Vehicle, just over the border in Czechoslavakia, was at the most, 30 miles from where we lived in Germany when I was 13, in 1965).

I thought I was pretty intelligent about politics in my youth (been a Democrat, in the face of Republican opposition from my parents) from the time I was old enough to understand both terms. But I never really became politically aware until Bush II came to power..........then I started following things on the Web, read Daily Kos and a number of other very good blogs, and started reading the books that were recommended. (Barbara Ehrenreich, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Greg Palast) and realized just the filthy extent of how I had been lied to ALL my life.

Dwight Eisenhower had it right "beware the Military-Industrial Complex - once you've created a society for yourself where a whole bunch of your people are working for "defense" industries, you are going to depend on war to keep your economy afloat. Especially when you sign trade agreements that assure that all other jobs will leave your country in search of cheap foreign labor. (And trust me, I don't hate the poor bastards that comprise the cheap foreign labor, unlike the Lou Dobbs, et. al. of this world)

I'm now wondering what all the time I spent in the military was for........what were we doing there in Germany playing all those war games, going through all those motions, doing all that Very Important Cold War Stuff? Was it to get Ronald Reagan and GHWB elected? And what the HELL are we doing with military bases in 700 countries around the world? What is that for if not to secure (steal) resources for American (only nominally American, multinational) corporations at this point, and steal those countries resources?

I'm now familiar with the idea of "inventing an enemy". I mean, the Soviet Union was no prize, but I know they were lying to us about THAT, I know they were lying about the "Global War on Terror" and I know they lie about everything else. And have been doing it for years.

SIGH. Don't anybody say to me "thank you for your service". I mean, I appreciate that sentiment and all, but I don't think my service did anything to help the American People. And it's really them I care about. My so-called patriotism does not extend beyond the American People to the filthy liars that probably exploited my service and profited from it.

•  Can I thank you for

  your good spirit and willingness to serve, even if you feel that your efforts were squandered? by those who issued your orders?  And for your service here, which is just important and may do more to advance the cause of freedom?

  by marykk on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 06:51:07 PM PDT

  •  thank you mary

    yes you can, but I think my efforts have not ever been any more than yours, know what I mean?

    by Rosebuddear on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 06:52:56 PM PDT

    •  For some reason I don't have a rec button on your

      post, otherwise I would rec you for that........sometimes I think Kos needs to back to the drawing board on their server

      by Rosebuddear on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 06:55:11 PM PDT

•  Remember

  They also serve, those who only stand and wait.

  When one is in the military, one is mostly there "just in case."  The military is a tool, I personally envision a big, hefty hammer.  Most of the time, the military sits there in the toolbox, "just in case."

  Never discount the fact that you were ready if the unthinkable were to happen.

  As for now, the military is a tool that is being used and abused by someone who thinks you can fix a watch with a hammer.

  by Sychotic1 on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:01:27 PM PDT

•  I saw a guy's fantasy post

  McCain, pissed off at Bushie for that "illegimate daughter" smear in 2000, getting the election and refusing to pardon, and letting all the war crimes stuff go through.

  His rationale was that McCain had totally sucked up to the Vietnamese and then PWNED them once he got away.

  I can dream, can't I? If he really can hold a grudge like that, I would LOVE IT.

  by Rosebuddear on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:08:47 PM PDT

  •  Not

    That it would ever make me vote for McCain or any other Republican, ever...:)

    by Rosebuddear on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:15:18 PM PDT

  •  Mccain

    never PWNED the Vietnamese.

    by newfie on Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 05:40:58 AM PDT

    •  Well yeah I guess he did

      Did whatever his captors told him to in captivity (making anti-American videos, etc.) then got away and told everybody what it REALLY had been like.

      So yeah, that's PWNING, I think.

      I sometimes wonder what the righty ex-boyfriend is going to do now. A lot of his family is from Arizona and they just HATE McCain. As he does. Will he vote Democratic in the next election? Not on your life. Will he vote for McCain? I wonder. And I'll never know. We don't talk anymore. Haven't spoken to him since he voted for all Rethugs in the 2006 election. I figured he should have known better by then.

      I suspect he might vote for the Libertarian candidate. Which would be great. :)  The more the Rethug vote is divided up the better.

      I saw Bob Barr on C-Span this morning, who's running as a Libertarian for Prez, evidently - they sound just like Republicans to me, but it was very interesting. I watched for a while and then got a memory flash - wasn't it Bob Barr who got so outraged when the MSM broke (false) news of the Clinton's "trashing" the White House on the way out? (removing "W" keys from typewriters, etc.) that he called for a full Congressional investigation, and then found that, oh ulp, the whole thing was a LIE? HAHAHAHAHAH.

      I have been searching through my copy of "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them" by Al Franken but still have not found it. But I know it's in there.

      Just don't remember who it was who did that. I THINK it was Bob Barr. Which would be absolutely delicious in the upcoming election season, if so. Think of the ads. Hahah.

      Every time I hear McCain speak, I hear this voice in my mind "you damn kids, get off my lawn". hahaha

      by Rosebuddear on Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 05:09:31 PM PDT

•  American military has bases in 700 countries?

  That would be in 500+ more places then there are countries. Right now thee's debate about whether its 194, 195 or 196 but there's only that many official countries in the world
  Sure you don't  mean 70?

  I spent 3 years as a paratrooper, one of them in Vietnam. I don't think my service did  the world any good at all, taking the world view I'd have been better off staying home

  Ive had people say thanks for my service, it sounds kind of weird. Vietnam vets were put down for a long time, we learned to shut up about it. Ive NEVER put on my resume what I did in the service. I've been on dozens and dozens and dozens of job interviews: Nobody has ever asked to see my discharge. I tell people I studied in Asia

  by exlrrp on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:45:21 PM PDT

  •  I hear ya but yeah

    700 countries............there really are many more countries than we know on the map.

    I'm saying thank you for that service with the same caveat I came into this thread with. I feel the same way you do about it. I never mention it either. Well, except NOW.

    Ex, you're EXACTLY right. If we really hated America, we'd vote for the filthy liars. Great Sig.

    I hear ya.

    by Rosebuddear on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:52:38 PM PDT

•  This brings to mind Smedley Butler...

  Major General Smedley Butler, who at the time of his death was the most decorated Marine in U.S. History, saw the light and told the truth . But we have continued to be manipulated by the most recent incarnation of war profiteers who exploit the courageous instincts of young men and woman for their own rapacious gain.  

  In 1935 Butler wrote:

  I Was a “Racketeer”

  It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent 33 years and 4 months In active service as a member of our country’s most agile military force — the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.

  I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical of everyone in the military service.

  Thus I, helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 191G. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

  During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents.

  by Eyz on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 08:00:16 PM PDT

•  I woke up in germany, one morning,..

  before the alarm clock.  I laid there looking at the clock, then the cord to where it plugged into the wall.  I realized I would rather stick my finger in the outlet than go to work.  So when I went to work, I resigned my commission, that morning.  Got out 45 days later.  Every day I still use everything I learned in the 13 years I served. Won't say that I never looked back, but still have not regretted leaving.  I knew alot of Democrats in service, seems like when you rely on each other to obtain an objective it rubs off on the smarter ones.

  ALL THE WAY!!

  by bldr on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 08:16:28 PM PDT

  •  Wow - I hear ya

    I haven't regretted it either. Could have stayed for 20, but didn't want to. And even more so now.

    My Dad (he's 78) and me sometimes joke about the "geezer draft". Like if they get desperate enough to actually bring back all the senior and semi- senior citizens back in to the military.

    Knowing what I know now, I would go to jail first. Or go to Canada and let my fiance hide me there. (Not that the Canadian govt would give US citizens amnesty anymore).

    I'd rather rot in jail or die than work for these people anymore.

    by Rosebuddear on Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 05:15:31 PM PDT