Freedom?
Watch the powerful video above, as found at Vanderleun's shop.
Then, after wiping eyes, disengaging heart, and placing cultural memory on hold, ask yourself and answer the following questions honestly:
1) Is the life of the average American today more free from governmental oppression (domestic and/or foreign) as compared to the average American on
- V-E Day (8 May 1945)
- V-J Day (2 Sept 1945)
- The armistice date in the Korean conflict (27 July 1953)
- The date of the Paris Peace Accords (27 January 1973) or
- The date of the Gulf War I cease-fire (27 February 1991)?
2) Notwithstanding the undeniable contributions of American veterans, will the young people shown in the video live with more freedom from government interference than their parents and grandparents?
3) How many of the tough, experienced, brave, and patriotic veterans of every conflict from WW2 through Korea through Vietnam through the last 20 years of desert adventures can be relied upon to fight in the upcoming fracas, within the confines of their abilities ?
4) How many of those brave men are today actively sharing what they know about the operational arts with those who can benefit from their instruction?
5) How much longer are right-thinking Americans going to substitute illusion, mythology, symbolism, and "feeling" for hard-hearted analysis, planning, and execution to actually re-establish freedom in this country?
Then, after wiping eyes, disengaging heart, and placing cultural memory on hold, ask yourself and answer the following questions honestly:
1) Is the life of the average American today more free from governmental oppression (domestic and/or foreign) as compared to the average American on
- V-E Day (8 May 1945)
- V-J Day (2 Sept 1945)
- The armistice date in the Korean conflict (27 July 1953)
- The date of the Paris Peace Accords (27 January 1973) or
- The date of the Gulf War I cease-fire (27 February 1991)?
2) Notwithstanding the undeniable contributions of American veterans, will the young people shown in the video live with more freedom from government interference than their parents and grandparents?
3) How many of the tough, experienced, brave, and patriotic veterans of every conflict from WW2 through Korea through Vietnam through the last 20 years of desert adventures can be relied upon to fight in the upcoming fracas, within the confines of their abilities ?
4) How many of those brave men are today actively sharing what they know about the operational arts with those who can benefit from their instruction?
5) How much longer are right-thinking Americans going to substitute illusion, mythology, symbolism, and "feeling" for hard-hearted analysis, planning, and execution to actually re-establish freedom in this country?
posted by Concerned American | 2:46 AM
14 Comments:
I was drafted. I fought to stay alive and get back home. In answer to your questions:
1. No
2. No
3. So few it is statiscally indistinguishable from zero.
4. Same as # 3.
5. I figure when the pension checks stop coming but your guess is as good as mine.
I couldn't help but think of "Old Gimlet eye", the most decorated* United States Marine corp soldier in history.
*at the time of his death, June 21, 1940
War Is A Racket
More on Major General Smedley Butler
Those right-wing-thinking Americans came back and became the Statist generation. Very few WANT freedom, what they WANT is to ban their neighbor from living in an ugly way. I'm not even convinced America needed to participate in WWII.
Thanks for the resources, CA.
Justin
Well, you have your answers. The GREATEST GENERATION also gave us the Great Society and the unwinnable war in Viet Nam(my war) where fifty-eight thousand Americans DIED FOR NOTHING.
Now, young men and women join the military because there are no jobs because the Bushes and the Clintons outsourced them all. Or, they join to get money for college so they can go out with a BA or BS degree and serve lattes at Starbucks.
Then, you have that serial adulterer, JFK and his fameous quote, when we know full well the reason he was transferred to the Pacific was due to his dalliance with a beautiful, blond Norwegian woman who happened to be a Nazi agent.
I guess this video would be moving if I wasn't so cynical. But, truth is its own defense.
Perhaps a better question might be:
How many of the "Average Americans" of today, spoiled and distracted by electronic gadgetry, ignorant of their history (not the lies taught in public schools), fat, lazy, and apathetic, are worthy of fighting for?....and how many would be willing to die for their own freedom?
I suspect there are not many.
KPN3%
Anon 6:22,It's not too late to get aboard King Obongo's World "Crawl on your belly to the people we whupped Tour". And just so you know, my Father came back from three years of combat in the Pacific Theatre, in the field artillery, was wounded four times, recieved the Bronze Star twice and all he said he ever wanted when he came back was a little place to call his own, and peace and quiet. And oh, smart guy, the 1,177 dead Sailors and Marines aboard the Arizona might be able to come up with a reason to get involved in WW2, if they hadn't been murdered by the Japanese.
I've got something in my eye, damnit.
Something stuck in my throat, too.
What in G*d's name have WE done to deserve the sacrifices of these brave men?
Today, I'm not fit to lick their boots, but G*d willing - when that awful day finally comes - *I* WILL FIGHT FOR *THEM.*
This I swear.
DD
No tears except tears caused by laughing too hard. And then I threw up a little in my mouth.
LIke a few million others, I'm a ground forces combat veteran. I don't know how it will play out. Smedley and later Eisenhower (his warning about the military/industrial complex,for those who don't get the reference) didn't make a dent. So it has come down to maybe I'm on the losing side but I'm convinced it's the right one.
I hate to be cynical but I have serious doubts about the desire of Americans to be free. Too many I meet think freedom means getting someone else to pay for it.
Oscar Wilde, the noted "alternative lifestyle" poet, playwright and author said,
"Just because a man has died for it, does not make it true."
The common man- from Babylon to present-day USofA- has always been used to fight wars that only benefit the few oligarchs that control the country in question (or now control the world). When the war is over, G.I. Joe is tossed aside and left to fend for himself. Like the Pony Express rider would say when he rode into the next station, "Gimme another hoss, Boys, this one's all wore out."
That the Power Elite can convince Joe Bagodonuts that he is fighting for "freedom" or for "the American way of life" speaks volumes about the gullibility of the Average Man.
Napolean said that he was constantly amazed that he could get men to die for little bits of colored ribbon he would pin to their chests.
If one takes a look at the wars America has fought from the Mexican War to Afghanistan he will find, IMO, that the act that caused the war was a fabrication. The seminal event that caused hostilities either simply did not happen or the other side was purposely goaded into starting hostilities.
LtGen Butler was right; save to repel an invasion of one's country, war is a racket.
To that I would add; save to overturn a government that has turned tyrannical, war is a racket.
"Patriotism is the virtue of the viscious" Oscar Wilde
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