Worshipful coverage of the U.S. military

Nice try. You're the one who made the claim. You're the affirmative, not the negative. Until you prove your own statement (lack of qualifications, or what, according to you, sufficient qualifications should be) I don't have to argue shit.

 

No, sir, the Constitution does, which is to say we all do. In the hours after 9/11, awful as it was, nobody lost their freedom of speech. Nobody felt safe but nobody thought our ability to speak freely was up for grabs, either.

 

Yeah. I think the phrase "all those who defended our freedom" needs to be retired for a long while, if not forever. It's basically a blank-check endorsement of every military action (or sorry, defending our freedom action) ever done by the United States military.

Whose freedom was defended in the Plains wars? Or on that march down to Mexico City? Or by dying of malaria in a Cuban swamp in 1898? Or by being thrown into the meat grinder of the Great War while civil rights were being shredded back home? How about a celebration of those soldiers who freely choose to join the army (as opposed to that cushy alternative of going to prison for years in defiance of a draft?)

Americans have fought for freedom but war has also often been a brutal action simply used for geopolitical ends. So while we might think we're honoring those who served with that phrase, all we're really doing is saying that every decision made by an American politician to go to war was 100% correct (with the implication that it'll remain so in the future.)

 

To be sure, it's even easier when you are being paid off to do so...

 

Howard Zinn, who flew combat missions in WWII, frequently made a point that's relevant to some of the discussion here. He said that it's obvious that the United States needed to get involved in WWII, for it's own survival and morally. But WWII then became moral cover for every conflict since. Every enemy was the equivelant of the Nazis, every action necessary because it was a essential to our survival. And that mentality got us into Korea and Vietnam and Iraq (twice). The people who frequently ask us to honor the memories of the Greatest Generation unfortunately often use their sacrifice as leverage in any discussion advocating more conflict.


As for Patreaus, it always bugged me a little that he didn't even come up with the idea or the strategy that made him semi-famous. If you do a little research, it was Gereral Raymond Odierno who came up with the counter insurgency plan that stabilized Iraq. I think that's a basic example of how people fawned over Patreaus for something they didn't even really understand.

 

Hondo are you referring to paid firemen or volunteers?

 

Two very good contributing factors right there:

- ignorance of history

- everyone in uniform's a hero

 

No, we're not saying that every decision to go to war was 100 percent correct. But our guys never questioned the politicians. They followed orders. And the foolhardiness of the politicians doesn't diminish a soldier's sacrifice.

 

Does it matter? They're still risking their lives. Do you or I wake up the morning and go to work with the knowledge that we might die?

 

You can be well-informed in U.S. history and still believe that our servicemen and women are heros.

 

So not questioning authority and "following orders" is held up as the ultimate ideal?

 

Sure it does. Professional police and firemen are doing a job that they are paid to do. It's their choice. Loggers and coal miners have dangerous but important jobs and few worship them.