DRANT #299: VICTIM'S DAY

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"Memorial" Day 2008:
Almost drowning out of the roar of the NASCAR engines, the screams of the orphaned children watching their parents and brothers and sisters being dragged off by the American SS, the I.C.E., the outraged desperate pleas of parents begging government not to poison spray their homes and backyards, and darn near overriding the cacaphonous pitchmen selling hot newly repossessed houses on the Repochannel (available at auction this weekend for a mere fraction of their worth) -- come all the loud impassioned eulogies for Our Troops

Lies, all of it.
I do not support our troops.
I do not support anyone's troops.
It is emblematic that throughout the USA we dedicate an official holiday to the deification and glorification of "our" warriors.
All across America today people of every kind, hawks and doves, peaceniks and sabre rattlers, pro war and anti war, are stepping up proudly to proclaim that whether they support war or not, they "support our troops".

I do not support our troops.
They are not mine.
They are not admirable brave men and women, nor are they fighting for our country. They are certainly not fighting for me. And you better get it through your head- they ain't fighting for you either.
They are murderers and killers, and some of them torturers and rapists, who have willingly committed inhuman and unconscionable acts on uncountable victims.
Many of them may also themselves be victims but all of them are perpetrators. As are we.
Many of them may be reluctant warriors, but all of them have the moral obligation to refuse to kill, and choose instead to follow orders.
They are not fighting for freedom or democracy. They are not murdering to make us safe.
They may have been sent to do the filthy work of insane power mongers and incomprehensibly greedy pigs, but that filthy work they do, and often, as can be seen on countless video clips, with gusto and guffawing glee.
I support the troops and veterans (and their families) who have renounced the killing and I support their great courage -- to look the truth of their actions in the eye, and take full responsibility for what they have done, and to then dedicate their lives to reparation and amends.
America looks out into the world, and sees not the 100’s of thousands of humans we have killed, wounded, starved to smithereens, or burned beyond recognition, but sees only its own brave soldiers, as if they were the victims.
And this of course is why we go so easily into war. THEY are the victims. WE are not the victims.
For Us, the Others don’t exist. It is all about Us, and Our sons and Our mothers and Our children and husbands and wives.
Supporting our Troops means we support ourselves, and lets us rationalize what we have done.
For each of us has made the same moral choice as each of the soldiers. Each of us has, in one way or another, followed orders, and death and destruction have been the result.
We must find the courage to NOT support the troops, and NOT support what we all have committed. We must blame the troops, and blame ourselves, take full responsibility for what we and our soldiers have done, and dedicate our lives to making amends.

Today should be called Victims’ Day.
A day for the nation to stop everything and contemplate and examine in extreme detail, everything we have brought on humanity. For centuries.
A day when we individually and collectively face the truth.
Today let us mark the beginning of redemption by memorializing and humanizing and glorifying the victims of our crimes. Let us march and sadly display the tragic photos of those we have killed, and not of Us, their killers.
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