Monday, February 6

You Get Over It!


You know every time I watch a sporting event I resent the obligatory color guard or field size flag trotted out so everybody can pay reverence to the flag of imperialism. Sorry, but that's just the way I feel. And every damn sporting event becomes a recruiting opportunity for the military. The closest thing to a rebuttal I've seen was the end of Madonna's stage show at half yesterday. The words "WORLD PEACE" were projected onto the playing field. But I'm guessing most of the crowd felt world peace came by occupation and imperialistic aggression by the force of the American military.


Last year I was at a Nuggets game and the halftime event was a Marine Corps drill team with twirling rifles and lock step precision marching. The crowd seemed to love the action. I had a sinking feeling in my gut as I looked out on the young faces of the Marines and wondered how many would die in the next year, how many had already been through the rages and self medication, how many were estranged from family. It sickened me as the crowd cheered and clapped without any regard to the kids who watched possibly being influenced to join the Marines so they can wear the dress blues and do drills. And how many would only wear the dress blues in a casket returning from yet another senseless war?

Sure, we love our military and our troops but is militarism, wars and violence what we aspire to be as a nation? Are our heroes always going to be warriors? I know plenty of veterans who hate this shit. Shouldn't we become mentors to our young brothers and sisters to rebut the myth of war being gallant and heroic? Shouldn't we advise those old bastards who have never had a shot fired at them with deadly intention they are masters of deceit and pimps for death?

Shouldn't we tell the real truth about wars? The long boring, miserable times in jungles and deserts interrupted by the deadly cacophony of rifles, rpgs, rockets and thunderous blasts coming from hidden landscapes. The horrible screams of wounded and dying bleeding out from the traumatic amputation of arms, legs and entire trunks of young bodies. The terror of the dying right before the light in their eyes go out. The attempts of the living to stay alive long enough to find the body parts of friends to send home to family. The soiling of ourselves when all bladder and bowel control disappears in the panic of dark ambushes. Join in. Warriors all have similar horror stories never told to the naive and foolish thinking it's all glory and parades when you join up.

Dalton Trumbo had it right in JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN. His character, a destroyed body with only upper trunk and brain intact, finally manages to communicate his desire for his remaining body to be put on display. The brass immediately stops any further communication between the "body" and a nurse who discovers the ability of the body to communicate. Make no mistake, embedded reporters were the deliberate calculation of the military never wanting the "body" in Iraq or Afghanistan to be put on display as it had been during Vietnam.

Bradley Manning understands the need for the display to happen. A public that has to face what it has done to the young they sent to war may wake up and object. It seems the babies and innocent women and children in our wars never cause an uprising or objection from the general public. Collateral damage. Unintended consequences. No, fucker! Humans!! People! Babies! Don't use your fucking parsing of words to soften the horror you are responsible for. Take responsibility.

Mark Twain knew the body had to be displayed in THE WAR PRAYER. He took it to the great religious leaders who rallied the young to war. Have the religous leaders of today changed all that much from Twain's time? Hardly.

Yeah, we need to display the bodies. Like the ones that run around in my head all the time. The ones that run around in the dreams and thoughts of so many warriors for the the masters of war. They need to see their death and destruction every single day like so many warriors do. They need to tear down their heroic statutes and display the body all over the beltway of DC to demonstrate what is perpetrated inside the lush government offices of the masters of war. Too drastic, too ghoulish you say? Think about how the occupied of our wars must feel when they see the result of our cluster bombs, our tanks with DU rounds or our white phosphorous. You want reality t.v.? Take a steady dose of death created by your government issued war machine.

Get over it, you say. No, I say you like it so damn much get off your asses and away from your CALL OF DUTY joysticks and PARTICIPATE!!! Try the real thing and then you get over it.

Anyway, I'll be damned if I'm standing for that stupid anthem or putting my hand over my heart or taking my cap off. I don't need to ask permission.

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