THE DOGS ARE IN THE STREET
Three Valley boys have returned home dead. These soldiers are being hailed as heroes. Why are they heroes? Is the government using the term "hero" to brainwash its subjects? Shouldn't heroes be the products of heroic crusades? What is heroic about Iraq and Afghanistan? Is our imperialistic nation establishing bases within easier reach of the oil fields? Our soldiers aren't dying to save our democracy. They are dying to save our economy.
I have little confidence in our government protecting either our democracy or our economy. Our politicians spew their nationalistic and religious rhetoric, but I have neither trust nor faith in them. Their present and past records speak for themselves. Since the days of Carter, the oil producing countries of the Middle East have served us notice that they will squeeze our balls tighter and tighter as long as we remain addicted to their black heroin.
There is no difference when it comes to the Democrats and the Republicans. The fate of the transnational companies is more important to them than their own citizens. They don't love their country. They love the firms that put money into their pockets and take care of their families and friends.
I was raised during the Vietnam War. My parents said I would betray the family if I joined the military. I had no desire to join the military. When I was a teenager, the losers joined the military. I didn't know one person of the 55,000 who died in that war precipitated by paranoia and propaganda. I didn't know one person who joined the military. The veterans returning from overseas and joining us in college classrooms congratulated us on our good sense.
They said that a bunch of gooks weren't worth the ultimate sacrifice. They did say that the dope was great and the pussy was greater. They said that when you ate a Vietnamese chick and brought her to a climax, it was like a dam breaking in your face. It was an image that has stuck with me. There were also the Thailand tales. I have lived a life of sexual frustration deprived of those carnal experiences.
A week didn't go by that a local boy didn't die blown to bits in a rice paddy, but the unlucky victim was white trash or barrio basura or ghetto black. The middle class boys attending school may have found smoking dope and fucking gals closer to home less exciting, but it was much safer. The great thing about the Vietnam War were the demonstrations in the Bay Area. They were a perfect excuse for smoking more dope and fucking more gals.
I have told my sons I would disown them if they joined the military. They have replied that they would disown me if I attempted to convince them to join the military. The volunteer military is a scam. The government knows that a military filled with middle-class boys wouldn't tolerate the farces and fiascoes that are Iraq and Afghanistan. There would be riots in every major U.S. city demanding withdrawals from both hellholes. Intelligent people recognize that both Third-World nations are dead-end streets.
The government has decided to arm the ignorant instead. These under-educated individuals face dreary futures. There are no good-paying jobs. There are no exits from their trailer parks or barrios or ghettos. The military is their only option. The military sends poor whites, browns and blacks to recruit more poor whites, browns and blacks to do Uncle Sam's dirty work. The army, navy, air force and marines call killing the fanatics in Iraq and Afghanistan their patriotic duty. How many more years and how many more deaths before we will have fulfilled our patriotic duty?
Who in his right man can have confidence in our Democrats and Republicans to resolve our foreign and domestic woes? The puppeteers are manipulating the marionettes while those free of strings stand quietly on the sidelines and say nothing as long as they don't have to risk life and limb in the fray.
These three Valley boys and the dozens who preceded them didn't die for our freedoms. Our freedoms aren't at stake in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quite the contrary. We are risking our freedoms in Iraq and Afghanistan because we are weakening ourselves in these vain endeavors. The weaker the country, the fewer the freedoms.
As much as we dislike the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, their denizens hate us more. We are hated throughout the world for our self-deceiving love. But hate is a part of the human condition. It is the reason the violence never ceases.
How do we resolve these bloody situations? In the same manner we would take out a killer in a neighborhood. We descend upon the target with our sophisticated weaponry and overwhelming numbers. In Iraq and Afghanistan we unleash our might and attack with our special forces. We eliminate as much of the enemy as possible and raze their facilities. Then we exit.
Enough with the ideologies. Keep it simple. We punish those who commit crimes against us, but this fixation with nation building on the part of both Democrats and Republicans makes no sense when our own nation's infrastructure is crumbling.
I don't like writing columns like this, but the dogs are in the street. I seldom pontificate on national or international issues. This is not my strength. Tip O'Neill said all politics were local and that's where I feel most comfortable. But how can I remain silent when I think that my sons might be cannon fodder? I don't want to receive their dead bodies draped in flags to cover up the wrong-doing.
Our government has no qualms about abusing the good intentions of our young men and women for a bad cause. Iraq and Afghanistan are bad causes. Iran and North Korea are bad causes. How long will we allow our good people to be duped into bad causes? Three young men are being laid to rest for the most honorable of intentions. That is the reason for their heroism. Their hearts were pure, but they didn't realize that they were nothing more than cogs in a machine that has spit them out.
How many more ignorant white, brown and black bodies will the machine spit out? Those figures won't include the best and the brightest. They know better. Their parents know better. Rather than the military, the universities are recruiting these boys and girls. The day the military dares recruit college kids, that day will be the beginning of the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I have little confidence in our government protecting either our democracy or our economy. Our politicians spew their nationalistic and religious rhetoric, but I have neither trust nor faith in them. Their present and past records speak for themselves. Since the days of Carter, the oil producing countries of the Middle East have served us notice that they will squeeze our balls tighter and tighter as long as we remain addicted to their black heroin.
There is no difference when it comes to the Democrats and the Republicans. The fate of the transnational companies is more important to them than their own citizens. They don't love their country. They love the firms that put money into their pockets and take care of their families and friends.
I was raised during the Vietnam War. My parents said I would betray the family if I joined the military. I had no desire to join the military. When I was a teenager, the losers joined the military. I didn't know one person of the 55,000 who died in that war precipitated by paranoia and propaganda. I didn't know one person who joined the military. The veterans returning from overseas and joining us in college classrooms congratulated us on our good sense.
They said that a bunch of gooks weren't worth the ultimate sacrifice. They did say that the dope was great and the pussy was greater. They said that when you ate a Vietnamese chick and brought her to a climax, it was like a dam breaking in your face. It was an image that has stuck with me. There were also the Thailand tales. I have lived a life of sexual frustration deprived of those carnal experiences.
A week didn't go by that a local boy didn't die blown to bits in a rice paddy, but the unlucky victim was white trash or barrio basura or ghetto black. The middle class boys attending school may have found smoking dope and fucking gals closer to home less exciting, but it was much safer. The great thing about the Vietnam War were the demonstrations in the Bay Area. They were a perfect excuse for smoking more dope and fucking more gals.
I have told my sons I would disown them if they joined the military. They have replied that they would disown me if I attempted to convince them to join the military. The volunteer military is a scam. The government knows that a military filled with middle-class boys wouldn't tolerate the farces and fiascoes that are Iraq and Afghanistan. There would be riots in every major U.S. city demanding withdrawals from both hellholes. Intelligent people recognize that both Third-World nations are dead-end streets.
The government has decided to arm the ignorant instead. These under-educated individuals face dreary futures. There are no good-paying jobs. There are no exits from their trailer parks or barrios or ghettos. The military is their only option. The military sends poor whites, browns and blacks to recruit more poor whites, browns and blacks to do Uncle Sam's dirty work. The army, navy, air force and marines call killing the fanatics in Iraq and Afghanistan their patriotic duty. How many more years and how many more deaths before we will have fulfilled our patriotic duty?
Who in his right man can have confidence in our Democrats and Republicans to resolve our foreign and domestic woes? The puppeteers are manipulating the marionettes while those free of strings stand quietly on the sidelines and say nothing as long as they don't have to risk life and limb in the fray.
These three Valley boys and the dozens who preceded them didn't die for our freedoms. Our freedoms aren't at stake in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quite the contrary. We are risking our freedoms in Iraq and Afghanistan because we are weakening ourselves in these vain endeavors. The weaker the country, the fewer the freedoms.
As much as we dislike the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, their denizens hate us more. We are hated throughout the world for our self-deceiving love. But hate is a part of the human condition. It is the reason the violence never ceases.
How do we resolve these bloody situations? In the same manner we would take out a killer in a neighborhood. We descend upon the target with our sophisticated weaponry and overwhelming numbers. In Iraq and Afghanistan we unleash our might and attack with our special forces. We eliminate as much of the enemy as possible and raze their facilities. Then we exit.
Enough with the ideologies. Keep it simple. We punish those who commit crimes against us, but this fixation with nation building on the part of both Democrats and Republicans makes no sense when our own nation's infrastructure is crumbling.
I don't like writing columns like this, but the dogs are in the street. I seldom pontificate on national or international issues. This is not my strength. Tip O'Neill said all politics were local and that's where I feel most comfortable. But how can I remain silent when I think that my sons might be cannon fodder? I don't want to receive their dead bodies draped in flags to cover up the wrong-doing.
Our government has no qualms about abusing the good intentions of our young men and women for a bad cause. Iraq and Afghanistan are bad causes. Iran and North Korea are bad causes. How long will we allow our good people to be duped into bad causes? Three young men are being laid to rest for the most honorable of intentions. That is the reason for their heroism. Their hearts were pure, but they didn't realize that they were nothing more than cogs in a machine that has spit them out.
How many more ignorant white, brown and black bodies will the machine spit out? Those figures won't include the best and the brightest. They know better. Their parents know better. Rather than the military, the universities are recruiting these boys and girls. The day the military dares recruit college kids, that day will be the beginning of the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
posted by brownsville literary review @ 10:27 PM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home