The Charade of Parades, Memorial Day Does Not Honor our Dead

Memorial Day is just another flag-waving bullshit holiday to glorify war while we make believe we give a shit about those we sacrificed to the military industrial complex. If people want to commemorate wars let them get into the head of some of us grunts and hear the real stories of war. Never happen.

Nope we'll make believe my squad leader who threw a grenade into a bunker with women, children and the crying baby I hear in my nightmares was something of a "hero" because a short time later he got killed by a sniper while he was screaming at me to fire my weapon. How's that for a war story?

And then there will be those who think they're being kind by "thanking me for my service". What service were they thinking about.....the times we burned villages down and left a trail of "crispy critter" kids with the napalm strikes we called in? Or the brutal beating of the female prisoner followed by an in the field "water boarding" followed by the eventual killing by Naval Intelligence as we stood around or walked away from the scene? Yeah, those good times of service need a hearty thanks from the American people. If only they could share those good times in the middle of the night with some of us.

I'm writing a piece about cancer. No, not my prostate cancer. The cancer of war that has been killing me long before the recent events of my life. A friend sent me a feel good quote from Buddha suggesting we shouldn't mourn our past but live in the here and now. Good cognitive behavioral health guideline. One of the many things we in psych tell our patients living with horrific trauma because we don't want to "open the can of worms" called PTSD. 

I guess I'd say to Buddha and all others ...if we, the combat veterans, don't mourn the past....who the hell will? I don't see the American public stepping up to mourn the "collateral damage" of our wars. Hell, they won't even accept responsibility for what their government has perpetrated and perpetuated. I heard some old flag-waving bastard on the route of the local Memorial Day parade telling a reporter it's necessary we commemorate our war heroes so we don't repeat the past.

Really? What fucking world does he live in? Oh, yeah, he lives in that revisionist world of veterans and American exceptionalism that conveniently overlooks the war crimes and atrocities committed by far too many "brave" troops. And who is he kidding about not wanting to repeat the history? That is exactly what we've done since the end of World War I. Smedley Butler eloquently speaks about war being a "racket" following his thirty plus years in the USMC after WWI. His words remain as relevant today as then. We've seen war after war and have yet to learn the lessons of history and continued to repeat it. We continue to sacrifice our youth at the behest of old men in politics doing the bidding of the masters of war.... big corporate interests. And it doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative. They've all sold us out.

These traitors who wrap themselves in the flag make sure they make speeches and show up for press opportunities at these patriotic "holidays". They want us all to believe how much they care. And every day there are 18 suicides of veterans. Every day there are over 50 sexual assaults by military personnel on military personnel. The military hides it using the acronym of MST. What the hell is that? Mountain Standard Time?? No, military sexual assault. Not rape when it is rape but MST. Not sexual harassment but MST.

Let us not fool ourselves Memorial Day means anything to the majority of Americans other than a day that extends a weekend used for trips to tourist traps, mountains, lakes or barbecuing on the back porch. Let us not fool ourselves the American people have any long term interest in the wounded warriors who face a lifetime of pain and medical care that takes far too long to obtain and comes with huge emotional  toll.  Americans don't give a damn about those nightmares running through the combat veteran's brain like a horror movie stuck on infinite rerun mode.

On Monday there will be jet flyovers and uniforms galore hanging out at veterans' cemeteries. And there will be honor bestowed on too many men and women who's only claim to heroism is their deaths in combat. The missing stories for too many are the stories of raping the civilian population, killing innocent men, women and children and hiding behind "I was just doing my job".

War is insanity and horror. Making days to remember the dead of our wars is a sham unless we reflect on why we keep doing  the same thing repeatedly with the same result. Unless we come to accept some responsibility for what we've done to the citizens of other nations we've called "enemy".  Unless we realize we're being played by the racketeers Smedley Butler so eloquently wrote about. When he came to understand the only original thoughts he had came after his discharge from the Corps. 

I no longer give deference to the national anthems, presentations of colors or the contrived holidays merely endorsing and glorifying our immoral wars. I owe the truth about wars to my sons, my grandchildren and future generations. They won't get the truth at the parades and the phony charade of "honoring" those who sacrificed for "freedom" in wars encouraged by the rich to increase their already obscene wealth.

Sorry. Memorial Day is a weekend I have a great burning hate for. It comes from true experiences in a faraway land we had no moral reason to be in. From witnessing the atrocity of war.