The American Military

As I'm sure you're aware, Memorial Day occurred a few days ago. Although most Americans treat it as just another day off of work/school and a great day for a picnic, many also take their time to show their respects in one form or another for those Americans who died for our country. After reading numerous posts from my Facebook friends such as "Thank you soldiers for protecting our country" or "Today we remember those who gave their lives to protect our way of life" or "without our brave military, our country wouldn't be here".

This is where I get controversial and piss people off.

I will agree that at certain times, our military has been necessary to ensure the protection of our country, our freedoms, and our people; however, the majority of the time, I believe that our military is not used for this purpose. The last time that our "way of life" was in jeopardy due to military forces was probably WWII. What about 9/11 you ask? Great question. Although Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were both attacks on American soil that killed large amounts of Americans, I see enough differences (who attacked, worldwide circumstances, and overall danger of the threat) to justify WWII, but not our present situation in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq is an even more ridiculous predicament. The war was begun as a preemptive move against Hussein for supposed WMD's. I don't know what you think about that whole situation, but I am of the persuasion that Bush/Cheney were aware that the information was falsified.

Anyway, my point here is to explain my opinion that I do not support war that is unjust, and although I respect individual soldiers for sacrificing their time, energy, and sometimes lives for our country, I wish our country would not use people's willingness to serve to advance unjust goals.

The wars in the Middle East need to stop now. The public is unaware of a lot of the stuff that is going on over there. In Iraq, we have and estimated 100,000 civilians killed due to violence, and about 4,400 American soldiers. In Afghanistan, we have thousands of soldiers killed as well. Still not sound bad enough? The US has been conducting drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 to "eliminate" top Al-Qaeda leaders. As of March 2009 (after 5 years of conducting these strikes), it was reported that 'we' had taken out 9 of the top 20 Al-Qaeda leaders. Unfortunately, over 1000 civilians have been killed as well.

Honestly, I don't understand why our nation's leaders can think that going into these countries and killing civilians will help stop the formation of terrorist groups. Honestly, it probably just pisses them off more. It pisses me off.

I've gone off-topic a bit. Basically, my point is that I feel hesitant to glorify the deaths of American soldiers when I feel that (not necessarily through their own fault) they are assisting in an immoral, and unjust cause. Whether it's in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, our soldiers are not out there "protecting our way of life" or "ensuring that our freedoms exist". They are assisting in the systematic destruction of other peoples' ways of life. I hope that those who have served, serve now, and will serve in the future will always question what they are doing and why they are doing it. That may be against military protocol, but I don't care. I think one should always question the status quo and whatever it is that they are taught. War is only excusable when it are absolutely necessary to protect our own lives.

And if you aren't mad yet, I also support draft-dodgers.