There are many members of my family who have served in the military. My husband is a retired sailor. My brother-in-law is a retired Marine who is disabled from Gulf War Syndrome. One of my cousins retired from the Army. I have two other brother-in-laws who served stints in the Air Force. At present, I have a nephew in the Army reserves and another who is active duty Army. All of them have taken their oaths to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, very seriously. I am very proud of the jobs they have done and know they have all served with honor. They believe in our country. This is why they have sacrificed a portion of their lives to serve it. I am blessed that none of them have had to make the ultimate sacrifice as so many have.
The thing is, the reasons we go to war and the reasons they send us to war are not one and the same (although the powers that be have done a great job and convincing us they are). My military family members have gone to war to protect America. The reasons the United States of America goes to war is to protect American interests. As Americans, we assume American interests are us and our Constitution. This is a false assumption.
We were told we needed to go to war against Iraq because they somehow had something to do with the bombings at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and wanted to use them against us and our allies. Afghanistan was attacked because the evil mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was hiding out in the rugged mountains there. The question is, has any of this proven to be true?
To my knowledge, no one has ever shown how Saddam Hussein, the puppet dictator of Iraq who western powers put into power in the first place, was involved in 9/11. They finally admitted Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Bin Laden was, ironically, killed in Pakistan (supposedly anyway--I say supposedly because no body was ever produced--just a few photo-shopped pictures). Even now, there is evidence to suggest bin Laden was a friend and that al Qaeda was the name the CIA called the terrorist training center they set up to fight the old Soviet Union. So why are we still in Iraq? Why are we still in Afghanistan? Ask any of our military members who have been forced to protect the opium fields in those regions...the oil...the land for the natural gas pipelines to flow through...Besides, war itself supplies endless money for arms manufacturers and dealers.
Then there is the question of the nameless, faceless "terrorists" who are out to get us. Why do they want to get us? Because we are "free"? Because we are "rich"? Let's use a little common sense here, folks! Would we want to keep someone else from being free? Would stopping another's freedom make us free? There might be a little more to the rich idea, but not because the American people are personally rich. Who is truly wealthy in this country? The top 10% maybe? Definitely the top 1%. The vast majority of Americans continue to work harder and harder for less!
What do the financial elite do that ticks other countries off? They go into a country who has resources they want and do complicated financial deals that force those governments to give them their resources without giving much back to the people in those countries. Any infrastructure that gets built is usually roads, airports, or ports designed to ship the resources out. If the countries don't play ball, the financial elite convince our politicians to send in our military to take the country over. They make up some excuse why we need to go to war with this country, usually something designed to convince the American people that our way of life is being threatened. (Think terrorism and weapons of mass destruction!)
I personally am not happy with the thought that my relatives, friends and neighbors are taking oaths to protect Americans and our freedoms and instead are being used and sacrificed so that a relatively few people can gain more wealth and power. The system is unjust and corrupt, and it's time to stand up and make our voices heard!!!
As an American, I am truly grateful for all my fellow Americans who have sacrificed themselves for my life, my freedom and my Constitution. I honor them all. Let's continue to honor them by standing up to those people in office (and the people who pay for them to be there) by holding these same politicians and business people accountable for the blood that has been sacrificed for their own personal gain and power.
The thing is, the reasons we go to war and the reasons they send us to war are not one and the same (although the powers that be have done a great job and convincing us they are). My military family members have gone to war to protect America. The reasons the United States of America goes to war is to protect American interests. As Americans, we assume American interests are us and our Constitution. This is a false assumption.
We were told we needed to go to war against Iraq because they somehow had something to do with the bombings at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and wanted to use them against us and our allies. Afghanistan was attacked because the evil mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was hiding out in the rugged mountains there. The question is, has any of this proven to be true?
To my knowledge, no one has ever shown how Saddam Hussein, the puppet dictator of Iraq who western powers put into power in the first place, was involved in 9/11. They finally admitted Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Bin Laden was, ironically, killed in Pakistan (supposedly anyway--I say supposedly because no body was ever produced--just a few photo-shopped pictures). Even now, there is evidence to suggest bin Laden was a friend and that al Qaeda was the name the CIA called the terrorist training center they set up to fight the old Soviet Union. So why are we still in Iraq? Why are we still in Afghanistan? Ask any of our military members who have been forced to protect the opium fields in those regions...the oil...the land for the natural gas pipelines to flow through...Besides, war itself supplies endless money for arms manufacturers and dealers.
Then there is the question of the nameless, faceless "terrorists" who are out to get us. Why do they want to get us? Because we are "free"? Because we are "rich"? Let's use a little common sense here, folks! Would we want to keep someone else from being free? Would stopping another's freedom make us free? There might be a little more to the rich idea, but not because the American people are personally rich. Who is truly wealthy in this country? The top 10% maybe? Definitely the top 1%. The vast majority of Americans continue to work harder and harder for less!
What do the financial elite do that ticks other countries off? They go into a country who has resources they want and do complicated financial deals that force those governments to give them their resources without giving much back to the people in those countries. Any infrastructure that gets built is usually roads, airports, or ports designed to ship the resources out. If the countries don't play ball, the financial elite convince our politicians to send in our military to take the country over. They make up some excuse why we need to go to war with this country, usually something designed to convince the American people that our way of life is being threatened. (Think terrorism and weapons of mass destruction!)
I personally am not happy with the thought that my relatives, friends and neighbors are taking oaths to protect Americans and our freedoms and instead are being used and sacrificed so that a relatively few people can gain more wealth and power. The system is unjust and corrupt, and it's time to stand up and make our voices heard!!!
As an American, I am truly grateful for all my fellow Americans who have sacrificed themselves for my life, my freedom and my Constitution. I honor them all. Let's continue to honor them by standing up to those people in office (and the people who pay for them to be there) by holding these same politicians and business people accountable for the blood that has been sacrificed for their own personal gain and power.
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