Today over on Western Word I saw a post discussing a gold star family that was booed on a plane.
I’m sure the mainstream media is regurgitating this story a lot, but I haven’t really been paying attention.
I guess it boils down to a soldier getting killed then his family going to pick up his body.
The people on the plane didn’t like this and they booed.
Well, what are they booing, exactly?
And to take it a step further…what was that soldier fighting for?
I asked that question on the Western Word blog and I’m sure I’ll get some kind of response.
Whatever the response is, I think most of us can agree that the question, ‘what was that soldier fighting for?’ isn’t that easy to answer anymore.
I’m not sure it ever was.
Personally, I think they’re fighting for oil in Iraq and opium in Afghanistan.
Both resources are then turned over to the private corporations that turn them into products that Americans crave.
Or is that not what’s happening?
Seems to me it’s been happening for years.
I remember getting into arguments with people in September 2001 over our desire to fight a war in Afghanistan.
At that time, no one wanted to listen to me say that this was a terrible idea, that our real problems were our own government and their foreign policies that were causing much of the world to hate us.
No one wanted to listen to that.
Now, more than 15 years later we’ve lost 2,391 soldiers to that war and another 22,773 wounded.
About 18 months after we started our war in Afghanistan we decided to start another in Iraq.
In the 13 years since that war’s started we’ve lost 4,511 soldiers and another 31,952 wounded.
We know that more than 970,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have filed claims with the VA.
Factoring those claims in, plus future veterans claims, it’s figured that both of those wars have cost our country $4.8 trillion.
What a disgrace.
I’m sure the mainstream media is regurgitating this story a lot, but I haven’t really been paying attention.
I guess it boils down to a soldier getting killed then his family going to pick up his body.
The people on the plane didn’t like this and they booed.
Well, what are they booing, exactly?
And to take it a step further…what was that soldier fighting for?
I asked that question on the Western Word blog and I’m sure I’ll get some kind of response.
Whatever the response is, I think most of us can agree that the question, ‘what was that soldier fighting for?’ isn’t that easy to answer anymore.
I’m not sure it ever was.
Personally, I think they’re fighting for oil in Iraq and opium in Afghanistan.
Both resources are then turned over to the private corporations that turn them into products that Americans crave.
Or is that not what’s happening?
Seems to me it’s been happening for years.
I remember getting into arguments with people in September 2001 over our desire to fight a war in Afghanistan.
At that time, no one wanted to listen to me say that this was a terrible idea, that our real problems were our own government and their foreign policies that were causing much of the world to hate us.
No one wanted to listen to that.
Now, more than 15 years later we’ve lost 2,391 soldiers to that war and another 22,773 wounded.
About 18 months after we started our war in Afghanistan we decided to start another in Iraq.
In the 13 years since that war’s started we’ve lost 4,511 soldiers and another 31,952 wounded.
We know that more than 970,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have filed claims with the VA.
Factoring those claims in, plus future veterans claims, it’s figured that both of those wars have cost our country $4.8 trillion.
What a disgrace.
What I also find disgraceful is how Senator Jon Tester is using these wars and the veterans they produce as a way to get reelected.
Tester’s fighting for veterans because he thinks they’ll get him his 3rd term in the Senate.
In Tester’s most recent press release he used the word “veterans” 42 times, according to analysis by Logicosity.
I hope we get a real veteran to run against Tester, someone that might actually go to Washington and give a damn.
We need someone to go and shout at those warmongers in the Pentagon.
I don’t see Tester doing much shouting in the Senate at all. He sure does a lot of fundraising, however.
He needs to start talking about how we can end these wars.
I personally believe the best strategy would be to have our soldiers destroy every piece of equipment they have over there and then get on planes and come home, to hell with it!
Then I’d let those two areas of the world take care of themselves.
Since they can’t do that, I’d go ahead and let those two areas fall apart.
I’d allow a power vacuum to develop, and I’d allow whatever fills that vacuum to just go ahead and fill it.
We’re 6,700 miles from Iraq and 6,800 miles from Afghanistan.
We have more than 300 million guns in this country.
I have absolutely no worries whatsoever that either of those two countries will attack us, or any other countries.
And honestly, I don’t care about attacks. Attacks kill a few hundred or a few thousand.
It’s an invasion that I’d be interested to see, not because I’d be worried about it, but because so many of our gun owners would rush to the coasts – or other invasion points – and just have a helluva fun time with their guns.
The country has absolutely nothing to worry about in that regard.
Still, national defense like that doesn’t profit our military industrial complex or our arms dealers.
Over the past 50 years the arms dealers have seen stock in their various companies go up by 27,699%.
That’s a lot of money, and if 7,000 or so young Americans have to die to get that money…so what?
That’s the attitude of the rich and the entitled in this country, the ones that made their fortunes off the pain and misery of countless American families.
Establishment politicians in Washington – of which Jon Tester is #2 for the Democrats – continue to allow that exploitation to occur.
They do this by staying mum on our dual-wars while turning a blind eye to the continued funding of those wars.
Tester could vote against funding those wars. That’d send a pretty clear message that he’s sick of it.
But much like his talk of helping veterans, we know this will never happen.
I’d like to see us pull every single overseas-stationed troop home tomorrow.
They could fight for America, and they’d do that right here at home helping this country in times of need.
Instead they fight for global corporations that kill and maim them for oil and opium.
I’d like to see Jon Tester lose in June 2018, and failing that, November 2018.
He could fight for America. He chooses to fight against it.
This country would be so much better if those things happened – we ended our wars and we got rid of establishment politicians.
Maybe one day.
