jfkennedy:

[this may be too long in this contemporary Tumblr world of three-sentence blogs, so I don’t blame you if you stop reading past this line]

This post has taken me about a week to write, because I don’t even know where I fully stand. While downtown I saw a man in an Army uniform, and while watching the BCS Championship game they highlighted soldiers coming home and being reunited with their families. In my mind, and/or the mind of most Americans, those are images of positivity. Soldiers represent patriotism in some way, and to question that is quite literally treason (in George Bush’s eyes a la Patriot Act).

First, watch this video. I implore you.

Sometimes I question how we can support soldiers overseas. It’s like we forget that soldiers are people, and people can be bad. And bad people can do terrible things. But under the guise of a uniform they’re saviors protecting our interest. And I don’t doubt that they protect our interests, but I also feel like the interests that they’re most protecting belong to some men in suits. Men that promote the idea that killing innocent people keeps us safe. Feeding on our fear of having a war on our own soil in order to allow us to drop what we feel is morally right in the name of Uncle Sam.

I understand that our country faces threats against it and soldiers are the ones who protect us against those threats. For that I’m grateful because they do a job I wouldn’t want to do, and I’ll always admit that. At the same time though, in matters like the numerous “wars” overseas where we impose our force unjustly, how can I support that? And how can I blindly support our troops when, and not all of them but a lot of them, celebrate killing innocent people? In my mind I feel like the military is composed of good-natured people who truly want to help, and people who get a superiority complex and feeling of power while holding a gun.

I guess that’s where I start questioning all of this shit, the blind support. I feel like it gives the U.S. government a feeling of solicitude from us. Or maybe I’m just mad that they have to do ‘as they’re told’, even if they know that what they’re doing is wrong. And you think the gov’t wouldn’t take advantage of that? Or maybe I’m mad because mixed in with those soldiers who want to do the right thing are some horrible human beings.

I choose to believe that most soldiers are good people and I wish for their safe return home. It’s a shame the plethora of corrupt reasons that people die for, for money that they’ll never see, of which only fattens the bank accounts of government officials who have financial stake in the war. It’s a shame the things we allow to go on/die for.