America's fascination with warrior culture and veterans
America's fascination with warrior culture and veterans
Americans are a war-like people. Americans have been continuously at war almost every single year since the founding of the country. In fact, there have only been 15 years of peace in the last 246 years since the country was founded. And, at least in the last century or so, every single war the United States government has been involved in was a war of aggression that they could have easily avoided had they not wanted to fight.
With this kind of track record, it's no surprise that American culture is obsessed with the idea of soldiers as "warriors" and "patriots". Most Americans seem to equate the two. They think "serving" in the military is some kind of patriotic, honorable thing to do, and that they're somehow helping spread freedom abroad.
And, since only about a third of Americans even have a passport and the vast majority have never traveled abroad (outside of perhaps Mexico and Canada), it's not surprising that they don't realize how the rest of the world views them. That is, with utter contempt.
Imagine being the average Iraqi or Afghani civilian who's been bombed, had their home destroyed, has likely lost children or brothers and sisters or parents to American bombings, destruction of infrastructure, the ensuing civil wars and coups, etc. How do you think these people will feel? Imagine living in a country with a democratically elected government, only to have the CIA come in and overthrow that government and install a dictator! That's happened dozens of times around the world.
By one count, the United States has interfered in more than 80 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000. And that doesn’t count U.S.-backed coups and invasions.
Americans are too busy worrying about Russian election interference to realize the U.S. government has been the most meddlesome, anti-democratic empire in recent history.
It's a shame really, because actual everyday Americans are some of the nicest, most helpful and polite people I've ever met. The average American is far and away more talkative, polite, and helpful than the average brit, who won't even acknowledge you exist. When I moved from England to Texas I was shocked by how nice most people were.
But Americans abroad don't have the well-deserved reputation of kindness and helpfulness, because the U.S. government has spent the last century bombing every country they could.
The sad thing is, being in the cult of veteran-worship and military-worship, most Americans are completely blind to what's going on. I see almost every store online or in person offering some kind of discount or benefit to veterans. Veterans get government pensions, healthcare, and lots of respect. But for what exactly? For invading other countries and killing mostly innocent people without due process? At least half a million people have died in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of U.S. invasions. Do you think all those people were terrorists? Most of them were innocent people, many were women and children.
The "heroes" you worship are murderers, or at best, accessories to murder. If the U.S. government wasn't the most powerful empire and American soldiers actually had to face what they did in a court of law, most would be felons.
It is worth distinguishing between conscripted veterans and volunteers. If you've been conscripted against your will, as so many were in Vietnam for instance, then you are a victim, and shouldn't be held responsible - anymore than a whipped slave is responsible for what they do. But if you volunteered, and every American soldier has since 1973, then you are completely, 100% responsible for your actions.
The other day I was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast with a veteran who was in the "special forces" and then worked for the CIA. He said that he had killed many people and seen "hundreds" of bodies. He and his team went on nightly raids to "prosecute targets". Notice all the euphemisms. Assassinating people outside of a court of law with no due process, which is a violation of the U.S. constitution and of course god-given human rights (which these hypocrites so often talk about), is called "prosecuting targets". Invasions and bombings are called "liberations". The man admitted he had no PTSD and no difficulty sleeping. The dreams he had of his time in the military and the raids were not nightmares, but something he enjoyed! In other words, this was a psychopath.
In any case, upon his retirement from the military and the CIA, it turned out that the government (specifically the FBI) had labeled him an extremist and a terrorist, because he ran some kind of prepper business and started a forum, and with all his military background the government got scared of him. He was upset about it - he said the government "had no business" interfering with his life, business, blacklisting him, etc. He spoke with righteous indignation, as if he was an innocent being bullied by some evil people. He must have thought that his work for the same evil people would have somehow given him a pass.
He was so blind to the evil he'd committed, he didn't even realize that he helped build up the fascist machine that was now oppressing him! He thought constitutional and human rights applied to him, but not to any of the people he murdered and oppressed abroad.
He was proud that he had managed to get disability benefits from the government, benefits that everyday Americans like you and me pay for with taxes that come from actual productive labor, and not, you know, murdering people in raids in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the world.
The sad thing was, Joe Rogan didn't call him out on any of it. He didn't ask him if he felt regret at the murder of all these people, or how he felt about all the hypocrisy of claiming to be pro-freedom while depriving others of life, liberty, and property. The man was not apologetic, like the vast majority of veterans. The only veteran I've seen express regret and apologize for his role in the meat grinder of death was Adam Kokesh.
I've seen so many "ex-special forces" YouTube preppers talk about their experiences murdering people abroad with glee in some videos, and then talking about the encroachment of the Federal government on American's liberties, that I've stopped watching videos made by veterans almost entirely. As soon as I see the veteran virtue signaling in the title or description, I scroll to the next video. I've had enough of the hypocrisy.
I remember one video in which John Lovell, who talks a lot about god and the constitution, told James Yeager that if the SHTF started and he didn't have a vehicle, that all he needed was his gun, because the first thing he'd do is go and "commandeer a vehicle". Yeager pointed out that Lovell was talking about car-jacking, a crime, but Lovell denied it, saying it was justified and that he'd return the stolen vehicle after he got home safely. A lot of these psychopaths have no morals. They pretend they do, they virtue signal, but when push comes to shove, these will be some of the most dangerous and vile criminals running around, and unfortunately, they're well armed and think they're "special".
By any objective, rational measure of morality, the U.S. military is one of the most evil, murderous, and oppressive institutions to have existed in the last century, and that's saying a lot, considering the 20th century saw the likes of Stalinist Russia and Maoist China. The U.S. government is the only government to have ever used nuclear weapons against civilians. The use of Agent Orange and napalm in Vietnam killed millions of innocent people in horrifying ways. And who went to prison for this, exactly? What soldiers, generals, and military commanders suffered consequences? None. They were placed on a pedestal and worshipped.
If I were a religious man, I would say that the U.S. government, and the military and "intelligence" agencies especially, are satanic manifestations of evil. That American so-called Christians so overwhelmingly support the U.S. military, despite their wholesale violation of the biblical commandments, the constitution, and everything moral and decent, is shocking and disappointing.
As long as Americans continue to sign up to murder foreigners for their government, and while other Americans continue to support them, the U.S. government will keep growing more and more tyrannical. Until conservatives start to realize the link between the massive military-industrial complex, the enormous standing army (which the founders never wanted); and the erosion of their rights, the debasement of their currency, and the shredding of the constitution, Americans will never be free.
You can't build a free country on a pile of bodies and hypocritical moralizing. The soldier-worshipping cult must end, and it will end. The question is, will it end because Americans woke up to the madness and stopped it, or will it end because the U.S. government will go bankrupt, implode, and America will become a third-world country that can't afford a military anymore? I guess we'll see, but my bet is on the latter.