The Big Lie.
We are told over and over by our noble leaders that we live in a
democracy. So we close our eyes and eat up the lie.
We compartmentalize the world around us, living in a make believe land
even as we go about our life in a highly structured dictatorship. One
look at the military establishment should clue us as to how our
civilian life is structured.
The military, as is our civilian world, is a pyramid, with most of us
at the bottom, supporting the smaller layers above, right to the very
elite at the top.
This is the model we accept in our military, but seem to not recognize
in our civilian world. And of course, this is the example laid out
for us in our Books of Faith. As long as we accept the practice of
the few dictating to the many, we will suffer.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/8/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistaction.org/2017/02/07/veterans-confront-a-system-that-ignores-them/
Veterans confront a system that ignores them
/ 16 hours ago
jan-2017-homeless-vetBy MITCH USMC05-09
Deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006
Veterans are tired. They are tired of a system that no longer listens to
them, tired of longer deployments, tired of a medical system that takes
days or months to respond. I have buried more friends to drug overdoses,
drunk driving, and suicide than during my deployment to Iraq.
In 2012 military suicides surpassed military combat deaths in Iraq and
Afghanistan. We hear stories about how even after Congress made a law to
stop the military from kicking out members with mental health issues,
the Army discharged more than 22,000 soldiers suffering from TBI or
PTSD. We see veterans stripped of their GI Bill benefits, stripped of
their rights to use the VA, and unable to find a job if they were
deprived of an honorable discharge.
Most members of Congress give speeches and implore the American
population to support the troops, but nothing changes. I see my brothers
and sisters suffering from a high unemployment rate, high rates of
suicide, and homelessness. Those who stay in the military are
emotionally and physically stretched thin with constant deployments to
war zones.
The United States has been directly at war in the Middle East for almost
16 years. Yet, less than three quarters of one percent of the U.S.
population has served in those wars. Washington’s war-making has fallen
on the shoulders of so few. So, we come home to a country that does not
understand us and has almost no reference for where we have been and
what we have done.
We hear platitudes from the residents of our hometowns thanking us for
our service, but those residents understand almost nothing about what
our service entailed. We are marched out and honored at every major
sporting event, but if you would have a conversation with the majority
of the fans that are there, you would discover that they have no idea
what they are honoring.
We are isolated and revered, meant to be put on a shelf and then taken
down when America needs to be reminded of how great it is.
We also see no end to these wars. The last “progressive” president ran
on ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but launched military
operations in Yemen and Libya, and upped the drone assassinations in
Pakistan. His right-wing opponents preach that we should have boots on
the ground in Syria and in Africa.
It is no wonder that we see the military and veterans flock to known
“anti-war “candidates, people like Ron Paul. There was fervor for Ron
Paul in 2008; I do not think most veterans understood his economic
policy at all. What appealed to them was the promise of no more foreign
intervention and getting the government out of your bedroom.
Of course, none of these Democratic and Republican party politicians
plan to actually bring the troops home. Nor have any of them truly taken
up our most basic needs. Everyone knows on some level that politicians
are liars and celebrate us only when it is convenient to make a point.
But because we remain disconnected from and unheard by the majority of
the American population, because we continue to see ourselves used as
propaganda and see our epidemics of suicide and addiction ignored, many
veterans embraced Trump.
Trump came along and said one thing that brought much of the veteran
community to his side. He went on stage and said, directly, “Veterans
are getting screwed.”
Veterans live day in and day out in a society that does not recognize
just how terrible our situation is. So all it took for many to back
Trump was that one loudly proclaimed and very true statement.
There has been a lot of good discussion about why many blue-collar
workers in the rust belt were convinced to vote for the billionaire
Trump, but less about why so many veterans did. I believe that it comes
down to not having a strong voice on the left encouraging veterans to
fight for a better future.
The collective spirit that is so central to the labor and socialist
movements is intrinsically important to veterans too. The socialist
movement should be a natural political home for those who signed up for
a collective mission for justice but discovered too late that the wars
were not about justice, least of all for them.
During and after World War II and the Vietnam War, radicalizing veterans
became central to the leadership of the civil rights, antiwar, and
Chicano and Black liberation movements. Many grew to become leaders of
the socialist movement, as well. What voice do we socialists use today
to show veterans that our movement cares about their struggles, can make
life better for them, and would stop the “nation-building” and
imperialism that is ruining so many lives?
I believe that socialists must introduce veterans to our ideals of
working-class democracy, justice, and equality. The movement can show
veterans that there is a way to stop the pain and trauma they associate
with Washington’s “nation-building” projects.
There are more choices than military intervention or isolationism.
Socialists can introduce the idea of real internationalism, where we
build global solidarity based on common struggles against the war-makers
in every capitalist capital and every corporate boardroom around the
world. We can tell the history that proves that a workers’ movement can
create a society that can really bring peace and prosperity to their lives.
The military taught us how integral it is for each member to do their
job so the mission can be accomplished as a whole. It should be an easy
task for veterans to understand how they can contribute to mass actions
of millions of workers and strikes at the point of production and
transport hubs, actions that could shut down the system, forcing our
demands to be met. The response of a group of veterans to the needs of
the water protectors at Standing Rock shows that this kind of thinking
is in the air.
Now is the moment for socialists to turn to the discussion in earnest.
Many weary veterans responded to Trump’s one true statement about their
treatment, but we have so many more truths to share. We understand the
economic draft. We know that one should not have to put oneself in
harm’s way just to avoid unemployment and discrimination due to low income.
Socialists refuse to champion a society that trades lousy military
benefits for lifetimes of traumatic brain injury, PTS, and early onset
arthritis. Socialists oppose wars fought for the rich against the
interests of working people at abroad and at home.
Socialists are for setting up a society in which the major decisions
about war, peace, jobs, health care, housing, and education are made by
working people themselves. Veterans need to hear this. They have also
seen a lot and have a huge contribution to make to the struggle for this
new world.
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February 7, 2017 in Anti-War. Tags: veterans
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