If You Really Want To Support the Troops Tell Them the Truth

With the recent passing of Veterans Day, social media, TV shows, and commercials were singing the praises of the brave men and women who defend America. Reading or listening to some of the praises heaped upon them, one would think that America would long ago have been overrun by barbaric hordes intent on enslaving and pillaging the entire country. Yet, such statements betray a lack of critical thinking on the part of those from whose lips such profuse praise pours forth.

When people thank soldiers for their service, does anyone stop and ask what the service being rendered is? Are the soldiers stopping hosts of invaders from sweeping in and destroying life as we know it? Are they repelling seaborne invaders making landfall on the East Coast? Clearly not.

Rather these soldiers are either on garrison duty domestically, deployed internationally to maintain the United States’ so-called strategic interests in places like Germany, Japan, Korea, Bahrain, and Italy, or they are fighting insurgencies in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, in order to spread American global hegemony.

The story goes that the troops are hunting down dangerous terrorists and enemies of the United States, who would attack us here at home. Yet, why would people want to attack us? If confronted with this question, many people would simply reply that terrorists (communists, fascists, and whoever else needs to be fought) hate us for our freedoms and our ways of life.

Such an answer is certainly convenient. The American way is supposedly the way of justice, freedom, and prosperity. Since anyone who opposes such things is clearly evil, saying America’s enemies hate us for our freedoms and way of life automatically dehumanizes them.

However, like most things in life, the reality is more complicated. The truth is that very few of America’s enemies wish to harm the inhabitants of the United States because our way of life and the freedom we enjoy.

Few people would be willing to die because of the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, or because Americans have freedom of religion and a cosmopolitan society. People are willing to die to defend themselves, their families, and their society when they perceive it to be under attack. And it is very clear that many of the people who wish to harm the United States perceive themselves to be under attack.

Because most Americans continue to believe that their enemies are motivated by hatred of what America is, rather than what America does, they misunderstand our enemies. Because American’s fail to see the negative effects of their own government’s foreign policy, and how it contributes to increased hatred of the United States, they continue to make the same mistakes again and again.

Thus the current situation in the Middle East is no surprise. Hundreds of billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, have been lost, and the Middle East is now a more dangerous place than before the War on Terror began. And we are now told that defeating ISIS may take decades.

If you really care about someone, you tell them the truth. And the truth is that rather than protecting America, soldiers are making America less safe by carrying out the self-serving foreign policy of the political establishment. American soldiers are being used as pawns to promote an endless cycle of violence, in the Middle-East and elsewhere, which benefits no-one but the special interests who profit from war, and the political lapdogs they support.

General Smedly Butler, one of the most decorated Marines in history, once declared: “I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers” In his booklet War is a Racket he summed up war as being an instance in which “a few profit—and the many pay”.

That is the hard truth that people must face if they really want to support the troops. The truth that they are not making America safer. The truth that the soldiers who have died, have died in vain, for no purpose other than to continue the cycle of violence in order to profit the military industrial complex. Unless people are willing to accept these hard truths and do something to change them, then American soldiers will continue to have their lives stolen from them so that the few may profit at the expense of the many.

Zachary Yost is a Young Voices Advocate who works in the D.C. area.

8 thoughts on “If You Really Want To Support the Troops Tell Them the Truth”

  1. Yes, as a vet, I pride myself on being able to hear criticism. A true warrior needs no applause or acclaim and a military dependent on public approval is already a lost cause.

    I was crystal clear that the military exists to protect international trade and the international reserve currency status of the dollar, not the American public. The military keeps us globally connected and wealthy (at least some of us), but an armed citizenry keeps us free.

    However, I also have realized over the last 8 years that most of the people who pretend to be anti-war would be horrified to really bring our troops home and give up the international reserve currency status and have to live without easy access to credit or cheap plastic electronics from Asia. Thus I have a support our troops bumper sticker and I joined a vets org and have shipped gifts to our troops overseas. Regardless of anything else, Clinton Obama and Kerry have proven beyond a doubt that most of the assh*les out protesting are parasitic scum that just want to feel good about how "peaceful" they are while they demand the society that makes military interventionism necessary. I support groups like vets for peace, but I also am going to stick up for the vets who are largely working class and are doing exactly what all the phony leftists want them to do but are too parasitic to say so. The bumper sticker on my car now says, "Support our troops – Don't protest if you were never serious about bringing them home for good"

    1. Excellent points. The US IS wealthier because the dollar is the international reserve currency. It allows us to export our inflation. (If we could not export our inflation, our taxes would have to equal our expenditures.) But because that reserve currency status is backed by the threat of armed force, and therefore is NOT ENTIRELY chosen voluntarily, it is no different than armed robbery of the planet. Or, if not direct armed robbery, more like a "protection racket" that gangsters will employ against legitimate businesses.

      I am well aware that I will be poorer if the US domination of the planet ends. But I would rather be poorer than be a thief!

    2. "most of the people who pretend to be anti-war would be horrified to really bring our troops home and give up the international reserve currency status and have to live without easy access to credit or cheap plastic electronics from Asia"

      Yea, because the United States was such a shitty country before WW2. Right.

  2. There were Muslim forces that would fight AlQaida , IS , Boka Harm , Kla and the Muslims we generally consider Islamic terrorists . They were the Shaw of Iran , Saddam Hussein of Iraq . Gaddoffi from Libya , Murbrack from Egypt and even Assad of Syria . We did not like or help any of these guys stay in power . because we thought they all were brutal dictators . We almost seemed happy to see their down fall . And assisted in their destruction in various ways . I have heard people usually end up getting the government they deserve . So a cruel evil people get a cruel evil government . A uninformed illiterate people get a uninformed stupid government . How can our military men come away from our military campaigns with anything but disgusting unnecessary pain with the management of our needless misguided wars . Our political leaders are absolutely clueless or they are liars that think we are clueless. Hillary guaranteed us Muslims have nothing to do with terrorism . President Bush and Obama have told us about the same thing We believe Donald Trump probably thinks a little differently .

    1. A few corrections, Eric: 1) The US put the Shah in power and wen't out of there way to keep the brutal bastard there until the Iranian people rose up and overthrew him in the Islamic Revolution. The US still refuses to forgive Iran for there declaration of independence which was inspired by there faith.

      2) Mubarak was also our boy for decades as was his predecessor Anwar Sadat after he sold out the Palestinians and his predecessor Nasser's Officers Revolution in return for US military support for his dwindling regime. Mubarak took over after the Muslim Brotherhood capped Sadat (couldn't have happened to a nicer guy) and the US continued to bankroll his regime until his demise became inevitable. The people of Egypt made there own Faustian bargain with the US in the wake of there revolution. We push Mubarak to step down and let the Egyptian people hold elections and they leave our people in the Army in place. So far, so good, until the newly elected president Mohamed Morsi attempted to reform the Army leadership. A big no no. That's when we stepped in, again supporting one of our loyal Army boys, Al Sisi, to take back power, arrest the disobedient Morsi and free our old buddy Mubarak. Sunrise, Sunset.

      3) As for people getting the government they deserve. That may be true in a democracy but you can hardly blame a people living under a dictatorship for there plight, especially when that dictatorship is propped up by billions of first world tax dollars (the Shah's Iran, Al Sissi's Egypt). The Middle East may not be ready for full tilt democracy yet but to suggest that makes them an inherently cruel and evil people is disgusting and racist (or perhaps cruel and evil). And anyone who says and believes such foul garbage probably deserves a president like Donald Trump. God help the rest of us.

      P.S. My grandfather was a Lt. Colonel in the Marines and he was one of the few enlisted officers of his rank to vote against Nixon in '72. This unrepentant Marxist is equally proud of both achievements.

  3. Very good. Also tell them they fight wars to protect Israel's borders, not the USA's.

    Not to be pessimistic, but with the current bunch of retards and other genetic dead-ends enlisting in ZOG's military today and the intense brainwashing they receive, I don't know if anything will get through to them.

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