I always used to feel conflicted about remembrance day. After all, I'm one of those people who figures that war is, ya know, kind of shitty...And that maybe we should try and avoid glorifying it.
But in the last few years, with the rise of the USA as a war-crime-committing, geneva-convention-flouting, illegal-war-of-aggression-starting, prisoner-torturing rogue-nation, I have come upon a resolution of my conflict.
Today is the day I remember how many poor bastards got killed, blinded, maimed, gassed, irradiated, tortured, imprisoned, and hated, all because they answered the call of their country...But I remember them all in different ways.
Sometimes (not often), the war they went to really needed to be fought. I doubt even the most hardened pacifist would claim that the war against Nazi Germany was morally wrong.
In those cases, we owe the men and women who fought a huge debt...They literally preserved humanity from evil.
More often, the war is either ambiguous (the first gulf war, Viet Nam, Korea) or simply a criminal exercise by the rich and powerful (Japan in world war 2, or our current disgusting debacle in Iraq). Yet even in these wars, the military deserves their acknowledgement...However in this case, rather than celebrating their bravery, lets just pity them for being abused by their own government, and get them home.
Now.
And never, never, NEVER let the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their merry little band of profiteers, war criminals, and racists get away with anything like this again.
But in the last few years, with the rise of the USA as a war-crime-committing, geneva-convention-flouting, illegal-war-of-aggression-starting, prisoner-torturing rogue-nation, I have come upon a resolution of my conflict.
Today is the day I remember how many poor bastards got killed, blinded, maimed, gassed, irradiated, tortured, imprisoned, and hated, all because they answered the call of their country...But I remember them all in different ways.
Sometimes (not often), the war they went to really needed to be fought. I doubt even the most hardened pacifist would claim that the war against Nazi Germany was morally wrong.
In those cases, we owe the men and women who fought a huge debt...They literally preserved humanity from evil.
More often, the war is either ambiguous (the first gulf war, Viet Nam, Korea) or simply a criminal exercise by the rich and powerful (Japan in world war 2, or our current disgusting debacle in Iraq). Yet even in these wars, the military deserves their acknowledgement...However in this case, rather than celebrating their bravery, lets just pity them for being abused by their own government, and get them home.
Now.
And never, never, NEVER let the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their merry little band of profiteers, war criminals, and racists get away with anything like this again.
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It's similar to what someone else told me as well. A co-worker explained how she had been dating a guy for 3 years and it was always a big fight, about the most unessecary things. When she got out of that relationship she went travelling in Thailand, and met someone who's she's been with for quite a while.. and she says she's never experienced something like this, that now she realizes there are people out there that you will not fight with, and will just get along with.
But thank-you for taking the time out of your day to give me advice. It's greatly appreciated...