Guest Post by Caitlin Johnstone
The US are celebrating Veterans Day, and many a striped flag shall be waved. The social currency of esteem will be used to elevate those who have served in the US military, thereby ensuring future generations of recruits to be thrown into the gears of the globe-spanning war machine.
Veterans Day is not a holiday to honor the men and women who have dutifully protected their country. The youngest Americans who arguably defended their nation from a real threat to its shores are in their nineties, and soon there won’t be any of them left. Every single person who has served in the US military since the end of the second World War has protected nothing other than the agendas of global hegemony, resource control and war profiteering. They have not been fighting and dying for freedom and democracy, they have been fighting and dying for imperialism, Raytheon profit margins, and crude oil.
I just said something you’re not supposed to say. People have dedicated many years of their lives to the service of the US military; they’ve given their limbs to it, they’ve suffered horrific brain damage for it, they’ve given their very lives to it. Families have been ripped apart by the violence that has been inflicted upon members of the US Armed Forces; you’re not supposed to let them hear you say that their loved one was destroyed because some sociopathic nerds somewhere in Washington decided that it would give America an advantage over potential economic rivals to control a particular stretch of Middle Eastern dirt. But it is true, and if we don’t start acknowledging that truth lives are going to keep getting thrown into the gears of the machine for the power and profit of a few depraved oligarchs. So I’m going to keep saying it.
If you tweet or retweet #SaluteToService the NFL will contribute a small amount of money to the veterans who've been flushed down the toilet by the bloodthirsty empire the NFL's immense wealth is built upon.
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) November 4, 2018
Last week I saw the hashtag #SaluteToService trending on Twitter. Apparently the NFL had a deal going where every time someone tweeted that hashtag they’d throw a few bucks at some veteran’s charity. Which sounds sweet, until you consider three things:
1. The NFL’s ten wealthiest team owners are worth a combined $61 billion.
2. The NFL has taken millions of dollars from the Pentagon for displays of patriotism on the field, including for the policy of bringing all players out for the national anthem every game starting in 2009 (which led to Colin Kaepernick’s demonstrations and the obscene backlash against him).
3. VETERANS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO RELY ON FUCKING CHARITY.
Seriously, how is “charity for veterans” a thing, and how are people not extremely weirded out by it? How is it that you can go out and get your limbs blown off for slave wages after watching your friends die and innocent civilians perish, come home, and have to rely on charity to get by? How is it that you can risk life and limb killing and suffering irreparable psychological trauma for some plutocrat’s agendas, plunge into poverty when you come home, and then see the same plutocrat labeled a “philanthropist” because he threw a few tax-deductible dollars at a charity that gave you a decent prosthetic leg?
Taking care of veterans should be factored into the budget of every act of military aggression. If a government can’t make sure its veterans are housed, healthy and happy in a dignified way for the rest of their lives, it has no business marching human beings into harm’s way. The fact that you see veterans on the street of any large US city and people who fought in wars having to beg “charities” for a quality mechanical wheelchair shows you just how much of a pathetic joke this Veterans Day song and dance has always been.
They’ll send you to mainline violence and trauma into your mind and body for the power and profit of the oligarchic rulers of the US-centralized empire, but it’s okay because everyone gets a long weekend where they’re told to thank you for your service. Bullshit.
New by me: “I Propose Americans Wear Gas Pumps on Veteran’s Day”#VeteransDay2018 #RemembranceDay2018 #OpioidEpidemic #oilandgas https://t.co/iEguLkJTTb
— HopeInTheUSA? (@HopeInTheUSA) November 10, 2018
Veterans Day, like so very, very much in American culture, is a propaganda construct designed to lubricate the funneling of human lives into the chamber of a gigantic gun. It glorifies evil, stupid, meaningless acts of mass murder to ensure that there will always be recruits who are willing to continue perpetrating it, and to ensure that the US public doesn’t wake up to the fact that its government’s insanely bloated military budget is being used to unleash unspeakable horrors upon the earth.
The only way to honor veterans, really, truly honor them, is to help end war and make sure no more lives are put into a position where they are on the giving or receiving end of evil, stupid, meaningless violence. The way to do that is to publicly, loudly and repeatedly make it clear that you do not consent to the global terrorism being perpetrated in your name. These bastards work so hard conducting propaganda to manufacture your consent for endless warmongering because they need that consent. So don’t give it to them.
Your rulers have never feared the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, the terrorists, the Iranians, the Chinese or the Russians. They fear you. They fear the American public suddenly waking up to the evil things that are being done in your name and using your vast numbers to shrug off the existing power structures without firing a shot, as easily as removing a heavy coat on a warm day. If enough of you loudly withdraw your consent for their insatiable warmongering, that fear will be enough to keep them in check.
This Veterans Day, don’t honor those who have served by giving reverence and legitimacy to a war machine which is exclusively used for inflicting great evil. Honor them by disassembling that machine.
Excellent article. Stop the wars that benefit only the oligarchs–i.e., all wars. Take proper care of the veterans who were damaged physically or mentally by the insanity. Educate the public so they understand what’s really going on so any public support for wars turns into opposition–start by breaking apart the media monopolies. Of course, none of this will happen. Perhaps the only hope is the coming Greatest Depression. Starve the war machine of money and the insanity will end. Either that or they’ll blow up the world.
Let’s stop creating politicians…
Oh, and let’s get rid of the ones we’ve already got.
“…The youngest Americans who arguably defended their nation from a real threat to its shores are in their nineties, and soon there won’t be any of them left. Every single person who has served in the US military since the end of the second World War has protected nothing other than the agendas of global hegemony, resource control and war profiteering….”
BS. Both WWI, and WWII, were very much about making people toe the line of the “nwo”, as the people who instigated those wars, are the same people who have been instigating wars for a thousand years. Spare the “nazi” crap, and find out who declared war on Germany in 1933. The same people who have bankrolled wars for hundreds of years.
And, these wars will continue, whether you give your “consent” or not. Because the people behind them think they own the world. And, you and yours will keep fighting and supporting them, because you will have no choice.
Stop the old men from starting wars that the young men have to fight………..paraphrase of thought that I’ve previously heard going all the way back to 1968…..
War Pigs by Black Sabbath (among many with the same sentiment – and they are British)
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death’s construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor
Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait ’til their judgement day comes
Yeah!
Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pig’s crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
Oh lord yeah!
I just watched Denzel in Manchuria Candidate on bunny ear TV.
Have not watched this since I was a young adult. If this movie is a redeaux, it means there have been conspiracies since forever. Seems your website feeds this.
Food for thought.
Don’t even need to read beyond the title. 100% right on the money.
One thing the Muggles can do for vets … stop telling us “thank you for your service”.
It’s supposed to convey a feeling of gratefulness, but in truth, it reeks of a weak apology from those who never served and those who never will. It implies “thanks for taking my place”.
I don’t want your “free” coffee or other “free” sh*t. It makes me uncomfortable and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.
There is no real answer to it, is there?
Well done , have spread this truth for years only to lose acquaintances not friends .
These flag waving support the troops bunch typically have no clue which end of the tube the round comes out of but they will cheer on you or your kid to march into harms way with no real understanding why . But keep waving that flag . Until you get one folded nicely for a greatful nation and your loved one tagged and bagged for any number of idiotic excuses !
hey Ham Roid I’ve got an idea for term limits, 2 terms and they get to pick how we kill them. old age or natural death not an option.
ReElect Nobody. So simple people think I’m retarded.
“Soldiers are Just Dumb, Stupid Animals to be used as pawns of foreign policy” ~ Henry Kissenger
War for profit over victory is our motto now, bring our troops home should be on every ones minds and tongues and bumpers
Happy 99th Armistice Day!
Celebrate peace, not the hard drinking, wife-beating, opportunistic knuckleheads in the military.
I was once one of those knuckleheads, honorably discharged, so I can say that.
Wing wiper?