Veteran's Day—celebrating arrogance—Which I continue to oppose, year after year

By SJ Otto

Every year I run an article to commemorate various holidays—some traditional, as Halloween or Christmas. Not being a Christian I don’t celebrate Christmas, but instead I celebrate the Winter Solstice. There are some holidays, Thanksgiving comes to mind, where the tradition involves controversial events or beliefs.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day and it is probably my least favorite holiday in the US. All across the nation, and on my TV, people will honor the brave men and women who fight wars to keep America the dominant world power. It is a system of imperialism. It is built on arrogance, violence and war. Not long ago I heard singer Patti Smith say something to the effect, that it is ridiculous that we still have the institution of war in the 21 century. And for the US, this is the most pro-war period in history since World War II. To our leaders, both Democrat and Republican, the entire world is our back yard and they are free to do with it as they want. Gone are the illusion that the world is made up of free people who have the right to decide their own sovereignty and destiny. For this article I’m focusing on one imperialist problem—Afghanistan.

Consider this comment from Luke Coffey, of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank:

“After the 9/11 attacks, there were two main goals in Afghanistan: First, to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven from which to plan, train, and launch terrorist attacks on a global scale, and second, to remove the Taliban regime from power as punishment for not cooperating with the international community and for harboring terrorism.

Both were accomplished with relative speed.”

This is the longest war the US has fought in modern history. The US accomplished these goals, he lays out, almost immediately after the war in Afghanistan started. The goal now seems to be to completely destroy the Taliban. Al Qaeda left years ago. Now Afghanistan has a US built government which as not been acceptable to all or even most Afghanis. The Taliban is a part of Afghanistan’s political landscape. The US is still trying to punish them for something they did years ago. According to a commentary in The Washington Post, Daniel R. DePetris, a writer and fellow at Defense Priorities:

“To believe the Taliban wouldn’t think twice before again hosting transnational terrorists is far-fetched: The group lost its control of Afghanistan because of it. Indeed, in the years since, Taliban officials have openly regretted their past association with al-Qaeda.”

Unfortunately no one is listening to DePetris or anyone like him. From IOL:

“The Trump administration has no intention of leaving Afghanistan, despite all of President Donald Trump’s campaign bluster about withdrawing US troops and putting America first. According to Trump, he has now “studied Afghanistan in great detail, and changed his mind."

What lies behind this about-turn is the view of the security establishment that in order to maintain US global dominance, having a plethora of US bases in Afghanistan is imperative.”

Today we will hear quotes by those who have put military service on a religious level as something sacred:

“On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free. -Dan Lipinski”

And the bottom line is that line that we will hear over and over again, “we can live free.” But that last line is a lie. We don’t depend on controlling Afghanistan for our freedom. Our freedom has nothing to do with that. This is all about the national arrogance of a nation that feels a need to control everyone else’s government. It is all about what works well for this country and the lives of those who live in such countries is barely an after thought.

What bothers me most about his is that there is so little debate or discussion on these national issues. I belong to the Peace and Social Justice Center, of South Central Kansas. There are peace groups such as this all across the country. But anyone wanting to find out about them through the mainstream news media will be disappointed. I do all I can to work with that group to promote peace issues. But it seems like I’ve accomplishes little. Most groups, as the one I belong to, are religious. Even though I am an agnostic and a Marxist, I find a lot of common ground working with these people.

So year after year I write these articles and take part in activities with the Peace and Social Justice Center. As of today I don’t see any positive changes coming our way. But I keep opposing imperialism and the unnecessary wars that naturally come with it. Today is no different than last year’s Veteran’s Day.

 

Patti Smith - Without Chains