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| US OVER HERE |
Excerpt, editing, brief comments interspersed by Carolyn Bennett
“T
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he rhetoric that those in uniform are protecting freedom is
hammered into the psyche of Americans at every turn” – yellow ribbon magnets,
patriotic anthems at sports games, and corporate marketing campaigns – “but no
war fought by the US military has ever been about freedom.”
Year after year, “the Establishment hijacks Veterans Day –
not only to audaciously commemorate the war criminals that send our brothers
and sisters off to needlessly die – but to justify decades of bloodshed and
militarism while paving the way for decades more.…”
Neither Communism then nor Terrorism now is a threat to the
United States of America. “The only reason Empire has ever fought wars is to
maintain empire.”
Sons, daughters
continue dying for lies.
People do not “join the military to be called heroes or
because they think they are fighting evil incarnate … [and] calling all
soldiers heroes, undermines those who actually are.” People who “throw
themselves into the line of fire to save their battalions should not be
generalized alongside those who pillage, rape and murder.” Contrary to any motive
of heroism, “most people join the military because there are no jobs and no
hope….” And they fall while trying to better themselves and support their relations.
W
|
ars in Afghanistan and Iraq have left “more than
6,800” US soldiers dead and Washington keeps sending men and women to die for a lie. Wars
over there were the leading cause of soldier deaths up to 2011. Then soldiers started
killing themselves at a rate of 22 a day. “In 2012 and 2013,” soldiers were committing
suicide “faster than they were dying [over there].” That means, Martin
explains, “a veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes -- or twenty-two every
single day.”
Care less Character:
Use, abuse, discard
Thousands of US soldiers wounded mentally and physically are
simply “thrown back into society” to sink or swim, to fend for themselves, set adrift
homeless under bridges, in homes where they seem no longer to fit in. A local
Rochester, New York, merchant insultingly offers veterans “free haircuts” on
Veterans Day. Thanks for your service, your sacrifice; we don’t need you any
longer.
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| US OVER THERE |
After that comment of mine, Martin continues laying out the
evidence of America’s (the Washington elite’s) carelessness:
·
Back in March, the backlog of Veterans benefits
was a staggering 400,000 cases with an average wait time of 125 days to process
the claims, according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
·
At least one million servicemen and women have
been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to 300 thousand during the
Vietnam War, despite the lack of a draft.
·
The number could be even higher, but the VA
abruptly stopped publishing the number of injured troops, citing national
security reasons for the censorship.
‘The disgraceful way veterans are treated in this country
exemplifies how little this government actually values life.
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| US OVER THERE |
“A
|
midst all the ritualistic pageantry immortalizing fallen
soldiers, we lose sight of the military mind, one that dominates policy and
breeds new generations of sadists who are taught that other human beings are of
lesser value than they (the sadists). This toxic mindset seeps into every facet
of American society, teaching every citizen that force is the answer to every
problem.…”
Real heroes, Martin says, are those who resist war. Wars will
cease when soldiers refuse to fight them. Hope begins in the minds of men and
women when peace (nonviolence) is chosen over violence. All of us can
contribute to this.
Martin suggests that the next time you hear people reciting
the “Support the Troops” mantra, “Ask what they are doing to ensure that there
will be no more senseless bloodshed. No more body bags. No more war.”
Sources and notes
“The Order to “Support the Troops” is Killing Veterans,” Abby
Martin at Media Roots and RTs Breaking the Set, broadcast, November 12, 2014, http://www.mediaroots.org/how-supporting-the-troops-is-killing-veterans/
Abby Martin | @abbymartin
Abby Martin
Oakland, California, native Abigail Suzanne (Abby) Martin is
a US journalist, artist and activist, and host of “Breaking the Set” on RT
America network, working at the bureau in Washington, DC; earlier she was a
correspondent for RT America. Martin is joint founder of the citizen journalism
website, Media Roots; and a member of the Board of Directors for the Media
Freedom Foundation, which manages Project Censored. She was co-director of “99%:
The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film.” Martin took her academic credentials
at San Diego State University (concentrations Political Science and Spanish) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_Martin
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A lifelong American writer and writer/activist (former academic and staffer with the U.S. government in Washington), Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett is credentialed in education and print journalism and public affairs (PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; MA, The American University, Washington, DC). Her work concerns itself with news and current affairs, historical contexts, and ideas particularly related to acts and consequences of U.S. foreign relations, geopolitics, human rights, war and peace, and violence and nonviolence. Dr. Bennett is an internationalist and nonpartisan progressive personally concerned with society and the common good. An educator at heart, her career began with the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Since then, she has authored several books and numerous current-affairs articles; her latest book: UNCONSCIONABLE: How The World Sees Us: World News, Alternative Views, Commentary on U.S. Foreign Relations; most thoughts, articles, edited work are posted at Bennett’s Study: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/ and on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08UNCONSCIONABLE/prweb12131656.htm http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-000757788/UNCONSCIONABLE.aspx Her books are also available at independent bookstores in New York State: Lift Bridge in Brockport; Sundance in Geneseo; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center in Buffalo; Burlingham Books in Perry; The Bookworm in East Aurora
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