Another Veterans Day has come and gone and for those of us who oppose the war machine it's hard not to notice the almost religious observance most people give to this unholy holiday. I do believe that we should take some time to consider those who have been subjected to the military meat grinder, but not with unquestioning loyalty to the mentality of war and not with callous disregard for crimes against humanity. Just as there is a peoples' history of the United States that tells the awful truth that can change the way we feel about our national birthday, there is also a peoples' history of war that dissolves the illusion created and celebrated each Veterans Day. Most peoples' experience of war is literally channeled through a few news outlets and generally in the terms of those politicians who make war, we rarely hear the other side of the story when those ultra-patriotic moments arise and the call to arms is heard across the land. Would we so willingly march into the meat grinder if we could hear testimonials from hamburger land?
For those on the top, those who plan and execute wars, it serves them well to paint the image of a "universal soldier" in the minds of the people. They want us to have an heroic icon, an empty shell that any eligible American can step into and become. This generic American hero has an equally generic and fabricated American glory story, of killing dozens of enemy units to rescue wounded soldiers from behind enemy lines. Onto this patriotic icon can be projected any suggestive image, mood, or subliminal advertisement for the military industrial complex. This perfect soldier may suffer from a wound, may even die in battle, but never suffers from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and never comes home to commit spousal abuse or random acts of violence in his community. This hero can even be a heroine, but she doesn't experience sexual harassment, or even rape by her male superiors. Any color of the rainbow can be projected onto this multi-cultural soldier, and maybe soon even those who fly the full rainbow flag, but they never experience the harsh face of discrimination among their fellow heroes and heroines.
This is the perfect imaginary Hero we celebrate on Veterans Day, we don't want all of those real people to confuse the simplicity of the day with their factual accounts of war and the mental wounds that so deeply scar all who experience war first hand, real war veterans. We want those veterans to stand up at the Veterans Hall to be honored, we want them to sit quietly on the Veterans Day parade float like giant cake decorations, but we don't want them to open their mouths and tell us what they saw, what they did. We want them to support their country, support their leaders, support their fellow soldiers, support war in general, and if they just sit their quietly and accept our praises we don't have to find out what they think. We don't want to ask them if they would do it all again because they might say "No way!", they might caution young men and women against enlisting in the military the same way a bad review of a product can make us put our credit cards back in our wallets.
If we allowed real veterans to tell us their stories of war and of coming home from war on Veterans day, it might become the opposite of what it is today: a commercial for the military industrial complex and perhaps the ultimate tool for military recruiters. The great thing about honoring the sacrifices of hypothetical veterans is that there is nothing further called for, nothing else to do but go on with business as usual. Imagine if we were challenged to honor the true voices coming from the veteran community, calling for real changes in the way they are treated before, during, and after war. Imagine if the many veterans peace groups had a platform on that day to discuss the illegality of the missions they have been given, to demand that those war criminals who played so carelessly with their lives be brought to justice. Imagine the nation actually listening to tales of the drafted young men who did not believe in war, especially the war in Vietnam, and many of those who evaded their enlistment and ended up serving in Vietnam anyway, never to return.
Veterans Day is like so many other hallmark holidays where we accept the most superficial definitions of some of lifes' deepest mysteries; as Christmas is to spirituality, as Valentines Day is to love, as Independence Day is to freedom. Many of us experience Veterans Day like a single on Valentines Day, a Jew on Christmas, or an immigrant on the 4th of July; we just cant take part in something we don't believe in. The reality of war is that good people who experience it wish that they never did, and those who like it and would do it all over again may not be such good people. We farm and arm some of the most dangerous elements of human behavior in our youth, seeking out those who can kill with little regard for their targets. Boot camp is more psychological than physical, it is a process of refining the sociopathic potential in its' subjects to respond to trigger words like "enemy" to direct their callous killing instinct. This process in itself is a crime, if you must brainwash young people to do your bidding perhaps it's not worth doing at all.
As for those veterans whose silence is deafening, those who could not undo the brainwashing and took their own lives as a result, these are perhaps the only stories we should tell on Veterans Day. Let us observe this day by educating and informing our youth so that they might be armed with facts in this military recruiting war for their very souls. Teach young boys that fear and hatred are not forms of courage but cowardice, that fighting the urge to fight is the only fight worth winning. There may be some things out there worth fighting for, but they will never come from on high. On the contrary, the only things worth fighting are those self proclaimed super powers who visit death and destruction on so many innocent souls, the Pentagon, and the war industry that booms and busts our collective soul. Bravery will not lead you to pick up a weapon, only fear leads to violence, and hatred is just the fear of admitting fear. Security IS insecurity, the two words are interchangeable, and if we realize this en mass, we can no longer follow the leader who obsesses about security.
Any leader worth following knows that pursuing security makes you look about as noble as a dog chasing his own tail.
This post is dedicated to my father John C. Wood, a drafted Vietnam Veteran who suffers from PTSD, exposure to Agent Orange and other dangerous chemicals. Just another story you won't hear on Veterans Day.
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