Support Our Troops?

Oh, I bet that grabbed your attention. These days it is a given that we support our troops. If you don’t, why, you’re un-American! It’s the secular equivalent of Christian blasphemy. But we seem to have a collective problem in understanding just what it is that we are saying or doing when we say we are supporting our troops. What does it mean to YOU to support our troops? What does it mean to the whole city you live in? What does it mean to the government? And what does it mean as a nation? Before we go marching our military off to war with flags a-waving, maybe they ought to know if we really support them. 

I remember my father’s story of Pearl Harbor and the war years. It is one that has stayed with me. Here is an interview I did with him in my freshman year of high school.

Q: Do you remember December 7^th, 1941?

A: Yes. Very well. I was 10 years old.

Q: What were you and your family doing at the time you heard:

A: We were eating Sunday dinner. We were having meatloaf. I even remember that.

Q: What was your family’s reaction when they heard?

A: My brother, Leonard, dropped his fork and we all got up and walked to the radio like it was a magnet. There was along of angry feelings, especialy from my dad and older brothers. My mother was worried and the rest of us were scared. I remember a lot of cussing and swearing.

Q: Did the draft affect you or any member of your family?

A: Yes. Two of my brothers, they joined before they were drafted. But five of my uncles were drafted.

Q: What kind of jobs were there after the draft?

A: Anything, because the only people who weren’t drafted were the farmers and the blue collar workers. My dad worked at A.O. Smith making bombs.

Q: Do you remember rationing?

A: Oh, yes.

Q: how did it affect your family?

A: Well there was a lot of the same food. We had these stamps for meat, sugar and gas. But we didn’t have a car, so we didn’t use them. The things I remember most is eating a lot of liver and oatmeal, and my mom trying to buy nylons. They were hard to get.

Q: What was school like during those times?

A: There was a lot of wartime activity, like every Friday you brought a dime and you’d get a stamp, and after you’d fill a book, you were really proud. They were two dollar books and they went to the government.

Q: What did you do for entertainment?

A: A lot of scrap and paper drives, y’know, door to door? Yeah, I thought those were pretty fun.

Q: What was Christmas like at your house that year and during the war?

A: ’41 was scary, but the other ones were very lonely.

Sound familiar? I didn’t think so. We don’t gravitate to our radios – we are glued to our televisions. We didn’t see a massive spike in enlistments after 9/11. In fact, they had to ramp up recruiting after 9/11, because the recruiting stations reported no increase in recruits. My hypothesis? For a people who have never seen war on their own soil, watching the twin towers hit was a true “Shit just got real” moment. No kid in America wanted to go enlist – you could actually get hurt! 

 But we didn’t really even know who hit us. Terrorists, they said. We knew full well it was Japan back then. Who the hell are “terrorists”? Tell us, Uncle Sam…we’ve been so busy shopping and watching football and enjoying our abundant lives that we weren’t paying attention. And like little birds, we open our brains and wait for our nanny government to drop morsels of regurgitated, semi-digested information in. In our desperation to return to normalcy, we accept it and carry on. The Government will handle this one. They know who the bad guy is. They’ve got it all under control. And after all, we ARE the mightiest military on the planet. The attitude in this country is far too complacent regarding war. Clearly none of us want war, or we’d be filling the streets in protest. But to sit back and think that your government does not want war is quite naïve and rather dangerous. 

The support of the troops and the cause of our nation in World War Two was clear, intense, and unifying. Victory gardens abounded, and rationing was tolerated and even accepted, because it was for our boys. Our sons. In other words, it was personal. As it was with the previous wars on this soil. The Civil and Revolutionary Wars were just that, tho – fought on our own soil. Where post-traumatic stress disorder just wasn’t an option, and they saw more dead bodies and violence that we can even conceive of, but they were fighting for their very FREEDOM – their OWN freedom. They put their own asses on the line. They were willing to make personal sacrifices. 

World War Two unified this nation.  Despite the attack on Pearl Harbor, this was not so much about ourselves as about the defense of others. There was no complaint about rationing. We planted victory gardens to make sure people had enough to eat. You didn’t hear people complaining about having to share housing, or women complaining about going to work. We pulled together with a common cause, and we were proud of our sons for fighting this battle for the freedom of others. After all, it was a good thing, here, this freedom. 

But what of today? How exactly are we supporting our troops? Oh, I know! Yellow ribbons! You buy a $3.00 yellow ribbon and stick it on your car. This definitely shows that you support our troops. Demonstrating merely what you THINK about our troops. While it’s very nice to think nice thoughts about someone, that’s not really an act of support. But, if you are not thinking about it as someone, but rather something, I guess it makes sense. There is a THING called “the troops”, and they are guarding my freedom, and keeping peace in the world. Look at my yellow ribbon. I’m happy about that. 

But for some of us, our TROOPS are not some thing…it’s some one. And in a unified county, every one of us would see it that way. It’s MY son. It’s my friend’s son. It’s my son-in-law. It’s my daughter’s husband. It’s my kids’ friends. It’s boys and girls we birthed and nursed and watched grow into strong young people of promise. The simple display of a commercially over-used yellow ribbon and nothing more is an insult to their commitment. Sound harsh? Think about what it is we are asking them – expecting them - to do. You are asking them to sacrifice their LIFE. Not only as a civilian, which they technically are no longer, but as a soldier. Do you understand that a soldier has GIVEN UP HIS OWN PERSONAL FREEDOM TO PROTECT YOURS? How much respect do we give that kind of commitment? What did Jesus do, indeed.

But what kind of young man today is willing to enlist, then? The recruiters have figured this out. After 9/11, I’m sure they were sorely disappointed in the take of young men. A draft would be hard to sell, so we ramp up recruitment. Look around and behold a nation in financial distress, whose children have been taught now that if you have no money you have no value. Your life in middle America is hard, hand-to-mouth and difficult. We can lure every one of them with the promise of money and never having to worry about food, shelter, clothing or money and an education again. We’ll take care of you. Your life will amount to something, instead of staying down here in poor territory. And it’s working like a charm. 

Ray McGovern, a retired CIA operative now lectures across the world. When speaking at Annapolis, he asked for a show of hands from the wealthy audience, who had an immediate relative in the military. One or two hands. He asked the same question in a rural Georgia town, and almost every hand in the place went up. Go figure. In the case of my own son, he is the only kid out of my mother’s 39 grandchildren who enlisted. We are also the financially poorest family in the clan. Imagine that. A hungry kid will, in fact, sell his birthright of freedom for a bowl of stew. Or MRE’s as the case may be. 

What angers me is that this recruitment tactic is exploiting the motives and intent of these young men. They are capitalizing off their socioeconomic situation, as well as their courage. They are pulling from a pool of some of the finest men this country has to offer, promising only a life-preserver if they make it back alive. And the life-preservers have proven to be sloppy seconds. Look at our Vets…it’s nauseating how they’ve been treated. These men are on the order of Superman, and we treat them like bums and societal leeches. In the after-math of 9/11, our standing president – the commander in chief – encouraged us to go shopping, and then set up a snare for our boys. Support Our Troops really meant, “Hey, mom, contribute one of your kids to the cause.” 

But whose hair am I fixin’ to raise, here? Venting this for the first time in print, I am angry. Do I hate the military? Not hardly. For the military is not the recruiters. All the recruiters that I have met, and that’s quite a few over the years, have been very kind and decent men. They are upstanding men with families and honor. They have no freedom, as you and I do, and no right to question orders. They have committed to obey them. They’ve been damn fine men, any one of which I would be proud to call my son. It’s no wonder they appeal to the brightest and best kids. They have a demeanor worth emulating. How high up the chain of command does one need to go in order to find out who runs the show? Theoretically, it’s the President, but I have sincere doubts that our current Commander in Chief could give you a list of all the places where our troops are without a teleprompter. Perhaps, it’s even higher up, to the banks and their corporations who bought and paid for his ticket. Same with this president, same with the next. 

It is true – our soldiers knowingly put themselves in harm’s way. They know what they are signing up for when they enlist. Their job may very well get them killed, and it’s a risk that they accept. In writing. We trust, as a nation, that the governing establishment will only use our priceless military personnel when necessary for “the defense of the constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” But is that what is happening? Are we okay with the fact that they are used in aggressive actions around the globe that have absolutely NOTHING to do with freedom – for anyone? Where is the addendum on how to handle it when you see that the domestic enemy is your bosses’ handlers? Are we okay with having our sons thrown under the bus for something as useless as corporate greed? This isn’t the place to give you a complete bibliography of how this is so. If you want to really support our troops, RESEARCH IT!

Yes, there are ways to support our troops and their superhuman courage that are far more effective than a yellow ribbon icon that is trite and meaningless. How about taking it upon yourself to understand that these are real, live men and women, and they are being sacrificed to the cause of a war no one wants except those making money off of it? That, and  our censored, bought-and-paid-for news feeds giving us pat information that we swallow without chewing so they can get your backing behind it. They have demonized world leaders, truncating their speeches and stated desire for peace, with the intent of getting us to grab our virtual torches and pitchforks and watch the shock and awe of people getting killed with the latest, greatest planes and weapons. They have made a complete mockery of human valor by turning war into nightly entertainment.

 Please…SUPPORT  OUR TROOPS – educate yourself in the affairs of the world that seek to destroy peace for profit.

It’s MY SON they want to send overseas to do their dirty work. They have asked him to put his life on the line in defense of the constitution, but they want to use him for purposes that are blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL! 

To clarify just what my position is on Supporting Our Troops is, I will bring you to my life. I have five sons and four daughters. I am a single mother, and my kids grew up financially poor. Oh, make no mistake, we are not poor people; a visit to our family Christmas would show you that we are rich beyond measure, despite the lack of trinkets under the tree. It’s just the money that we lacked. Three of them were courted heavily by the recruiters. The first one got all the way through the enlistment process, only to have his appendix rupture, and have his training dates set back six months post recovery. In the interim, he decided against enlistment.  The second decided to make the commitment. He joined the army at the age of 19, and will be deployed overseas in May of 2013. My 17-year-old son is now in their sights. 

Just a few weeks ago, I went with him to the recruiter’s office. Before we went, we had a long conversation. He was filling out the last of his paperwork, and noticed that I seemed distracted. 

“Mom, don’t you want me to join the Marines?” he asked me. 

I suppressed the tears and gave myself a chance to compose what I had to say to that. You see, I, too, am a Native American. I was born here. This is my homeland. This is my nation. I believe strongly and passionately in freedom. Even the freedom of my sons to join the military, no matter what my wishes are. He has a right to his own life, and to make the choices he sees fit. How can I, as his mother, attempt to manipulate his choices with my emotions? I must be objective. I believe in my children, and their emerging adulthood. They are not me – they are themselves, and individuality is encouraged. That’s the way I’ve raised them. Painfully, this was no different.

And so I explained to him, “Son, whatever you decide to do, I want you to know that I support you and am behind you 100%. But I want you to promise me one thing: That you will inform yourself as to exactly what it is you are committing to, the gravity of it, the severity of it. Know what you are exchanging your freedom and even your life for. Make sure you feel it is worth it.  Here’s my problem, as your mother. We do have the mightiest military on the planet. We have been invited many places on this globe to augment the militaries of other countries in defense of their land and freedom. We proudly defend some nations that don’t have enough military muscle to talk about. And a world without the US Military defending freedoms would be a very precarious world, indeed. If you were ever to be killed while defending the cause of freedom, I would cry very proud tears. I would boast of being the mother of son who sacrificed himself for freedom. But if you were acting on behalf of a power-happy political pissing match over resources and rumors of war; if you were to be thrust onto the battlefield as an army of aggression against a nation that is no threat to our freedom or anyone else’s, for reasons that are not immediately clear to all parties involved in the conflict; if you were to be killed in the quest of nothing more than corporate greed and money, I would die a thousand deaths with you. Your life would have been used for an ignoble purpose, and that is not who you are. Your sworn purpose is to defend the Constitution. If you can understand that, and the oath you are being asked to take, and are 100% sure that this is the purpose of your life at this time, you will have my undying support. You will always have my undying love.” 

Support our Troops? How about ensuring that we support them by not sending them to places where their sacrifice is not necessary? They are willing to lay down their lives for freedom – how dare we dishonor them by even suggesting that they lay it on the line for the sake of nothing more than greed and power? If you still believe all the bullshit filtered and sifted and paid for by foreign nations and major corporations, shame on you. Support your troops by knowing for yourself what it is they are being asked to do – and for whom they are being asked to do it.  Is it a country that seeks our aid because they are small and free and want to stay that way? Or is it because we covet the resources of a nation whose military muscle pales in comparison to our own? A war of intimidation and racial and religious conflict NOT OURS? Are they being asked to protect liberty, or perpetuate violence? These are things we NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT. 

If We, The People, cannot wake up to the realities of what a World War is and what it means to our military sons and daughters and the impact that it will have on our way of life here, and make our voice heard in opposition to a war that in no way benefits We, The People, then we do not support our troops. We are sacrificing them to powers of greed, corruption and violence that we all claim to be against. How much more blood on the hands of these powers will we tolerate? How long will we turn a blind eye to it? How long will we believe the politicians as they pontificate about the “necessity of war”? How long will be believe the media’s bogus justification for our killing sprees? You’ve been suckered, and your military families are paying the ultimate price for it. These are men and woman of valor whose lives and service is being squandered – not pawns on the global chessboard. 

The troops we claim to support deserve to hold their heads high, knowing they have protected and defended the constitution. They should not be coming home and living a life of post-traumatic stress disorder, minus their compatriots, to a nation that has carelessly allowed it’s leaders to drag them into wars not their own.

Oh…there was one more thing my father added to his interview that deserves attention:

Q: Is there anything else of interest that you would like to add?

A: I remember the end of the war. It was sheer jubilation. Wisconsin Avenue was packed with people singing and cheering and there was a lot of crying. Oh, yeah…during the war, a lot of windows had little flags in them with stars on them: Gold and blue. Blue was the number of sons still alive, and gold was the number killed in battle. Some people would have, like, three or four stars, two blue, two gold…like that. Our family was really lucky. My grandmother had five blue stars and my mother had two blue. 

Jubilation. No More War. It was over. There was a support of the troops, and the troops came home. So happy to be home, we created the Baby Boomers. It’s not an anthropological mystery that human beings are not created for war. We break. We bleed. We are far better suited to conversation, and reasoning. We are intelligent beings. War is the ultimate and supreme dysfunction of the human species. Why, oh why, would anyone seek to perpetuate this? Answer me that.

Our country is in decline. Our debt is too high, and our morale too low. Our leaders too confused, and the electorate disdainful. Ask your oldest living relative when they saw this much disrespect and mockery in an election. Up until the last several elections, there was an air of dignity and respect for both candidates. Somehow I missed the political cartoon where both Kennedy and Nixon were depicted as piles of shit to choose between. We make a mockery of democracy with our disrespect – but the hard cold fact is that it is an accurate representation of just how far we have fallen in our opinion of the government. Have we completely forgotten that we were a nation willing to shed blood for the opportunity to elect our own leader? And that there are still countries who are? Hell, we wouldn’t even spill a cup of coffee for our leaders today. 

In so many countries, they take their leadership, freedom and sovereignty seriously. Seriously enough to die for, and we call it terrorism. Good thing our leaders weren’t around in 1776 to help squash the American rebellion. Anyone who creates terror for another is a terrorist. If the shoe fits, wear it. My son is not a terrorist. The military men and women of the United States Military are NOT terrorists, and should not be asked nor expected to act in that capacity. Did it piss you off that our twin towers were hit by terrorists? Imagine if we did not have the power of the US Military backing us up. Imagine if we had hostile nations on either side of us, with their military bases dotted throughout our country's landscape. What kind of options do we have then? Would you expect to just grin and bear it, like we expect the countries we've bombed to? If a little country strikes, it terrorism. If it's one of the big boys on the block, somehow it's justified? What are we asking of our troops, really?

 

 Throughout our history, there have been times when it has perhaps been necessary to stop an evil dictator who is flagrantly committing genocide with a view to world domination that must be stopped. The decision to enter a war to depose them for the sake of the world’s peace, liberty, and safety of the people is agreed upon within not only our general population, but the populations of countries in the direct path of the takeover. We should be proud to help protect and defend. The issues were clear. But now? Does anyone even know what the fuck we are fighting for? Most of our soldiers don’t even know. They are just reporting for duty, sir. It’s another Manhattan Project of the worst order. Building our military weapon of mass destruction and nobody even knows they are participating in it. 

I watched a film clip of a reporter following a very young man as he prepared to deploy to Iraq. He asked him, “Son, what can we do to support our troops?” As he broke away from the tearful embrace of his mother and put his rucksack in the trunk of the car he managed to say, “How about not sending me to Iraq?” 

So, you say you support our troops? Then we need to speak out against any acts of US aggression, and entering into any conflict where a force as intimidating as our military is not clearly indicated. We need to be sure that we are not involving ourselves in any civil wars where there is clearly no winner – only civilian losers. It’s true: WE ARE THE BIG GUNS. Can’t we settle for being the military answer when all else fails? The power if last resort? Or is there something at work here more sinister, more subtle, and less worthy than we are being fed? If our motive is peace and liberty worldwide, then this would not be an issue. Being the most powerful kid on the block carries some hard-core responsibility, and that is to use our strength to the benefit of those who need protection. To engage our troops in anything less, or to involve ourselves in some country’s jihad is like using a fire-hose to put out a candle. For us to do so suggests that we have some motive other than the freedom of some people group. War, after all, is BIG business. When I question our involvement around the globe, I follow the money. And when the overwhelming evidence and research shows that war and money are in the same bed, I just want to puke. Using my son and our military as kindling to the fire is not acceptable. Using the mighty US Military to secure a position on the planet which only assures us a constant supply of other countries resources is an abuse of power at best, and a complete trivialization of the lives of the men and women who make up that military at worst. 

Where are we, America? Have we really been reduced to this? Where a cheap yellow plastic ribbon and a flag made in China are the best we can do to “Support Our Troops”? Really? Do you really WANT to send my son, your daughter, your neighbors husband headlong into world war three? Do you have any clue what the stakes are, and what is really up for grabs on the Risk board? Are you completely unaware that the American infrastructure and economy are holding on by the tiniest QE thread of freshly printed, completely devalued dollars? Ready for rationing again? Gas lines? Deeper debt to fund the war, and lower morale for the economic state of the nation, when perhaps our gas supplies will be limited to agricultural and military use only? Doesn’t that sound like fun? Who the fuck is on board with that – except those who stand to make money off of it? Whose children are not in the military? Whose blood will not be spilled? Who will sit in ivory towers, dining on fine food, untouched by the chaos except that which they view on television? If not them, then who? Who is calling the shots? 

The fact of the matter is that WE, THE PEOPLE, are not. We have been silenced. We have been groomed for apathy and entertainment. We have been buried in the debris of worthless materialistic crap, a cycle of consumerism that has bled us dry. We have been dumbed down to the point of not even knowing what is happening outside of our own house. We have been deluded into thinking we are informed when we suck from the hind tit of the corporately owned media that shows us what they want us to think. This is not your father’s generation. This is NOT a society that is ready to pull together and Support our Troops. We don’t even know who our troops are. If we did, we wouldn’t be letting any of this happen. If we did, we would have a much higher respect for the sacrifices of soldiers past – and would have maintained something more than a bunch of lousy lip-service to what they paid for in blood. We are STILL FREE, for Christ’s sake! But the way things are going, it won’t be for much longer. We can still turn this Titanic around, and should in short order, before we are put into a position where our troops need to support us. 

Support Our Troops. Wake up. Your world is about the change. Your denial will not stop it. My histrionics and blogging will not stop it. 

Support Our Troops. Know what the hell they are being asked to do, and for the sake of all that is good, please find other sources than the mainstream, advertising driven media. We still have the internet – support our troops and USE IT. 

Support our Troops. Try actually giving of your time and money and sending them care packages, letters, books, and sundries. “Damn…it’s another package full of stuff that we have desperately wanted to see!” said no solider…ever.  

Support our Troops: Stop arguing over trivial issues that just breed division. They are not fighting and dying for republicans or democrats. Have your opinions, but at the end of the day remember the YOU ARE AN AMERICAN – PERIOD. United we stand, and divided we will fall. True story. 

Support our Troops: Give them something worth fighting for. A nation full of sit-com junkies, gobbling up reality shows that highlight nothing but poor human behavior, consuming and hoarding more shit than any one person needs is a nation full of idiots. A nation that idolizes wealth and privilege over integrity and equality is in a sorry place. When Hollywood is more important that your own neighborhood, and your daughters are dying from their self-esteem problems; when a bad hair day can actually affect the way you treat people; when your nation has the highest prison population in the world….perhaps it’s time to take a good hard look at whether or not we are even worth fighting for. Maybe we should just go on fiddling while Rome burns. With my apologies to the troops, for so bravely going where no man should have to go for a people who’s collective response to your mission has been, “Yah..whatever… by the way, did you see what Snooky was wearing last night? OMG…”. 

Ah…but you have that yellow ribbon on you SUV, don’t you? Oh. Never mind then. 

This message has been brought to you by all the frustration, anger, rage and love of the Mother of an American soldier who is willing to Support Our Troops with the flesh of my flesh, and will stop at nothing short of an awakening of the inhabitants of the Nation that I love.