I'm of two minds when I think of the men and women who've lived and died for our country in the US military.
Words can't express the gratitude I have for the warriors and those who didn't want to be warriors, but took up arms anyway to fight in wars that would've altered our society drastically, had we lost. I joined the Navy right out of high school, mostly to learn a trade and to avoid being a conscript in the Army. It was an experience I'll never forget. While most of my hitch was a peacetime cruise, we did face danger once, for a few days.
We were in the Caribbean taking part in the Cuban Missile Blockade. 'Twas a tense time, those few days we worked, mostly at General Quarters, waiting to see who'd blink or who'd launch. It scared me even more later, after I learned more of the story.
Which brings me to the other side of the coin. How many of these wars actually had to happen? In how many of these wars did we really need to involve ourselves?
The Revolutionary War--the war of independence from the British Crown, was the war that helped create the greatest nation on earth, a Constitutional Republic (not a democracy), and the pattern for dozens of other republics around the world--many of which have failed for lack of an individualistic philosophical base. There's no end to the respect I have for the Founders and all the individuals who fought to form the greatest nation in earth's history.
Unfortunately, the philosophical base that helped form the United States of America has deteriorated as well.
Most of the wars in which we've involved ourselves since could've been avoided, with less inept Presidents and Congresses. Simply adhering to the Founders' idea of avoidance of foreign entanglements would've left the nation far more capable of conducting trade and communication with other parts of the world, and allowed an always innovative America to advance and prosper in ways unimaginable to the people of less free parts of the world.
Might the United States, as a politically isolationist trader-state, have been attacked by foreign powers? Possibly, but with the ability of a free people to invent and industrialize, and the inability of dictatorships to marshal true enthusiasm on the part of the oppressed classes, it wouldn't have come to much.
So, while we celebrate the remembrance of our military veterans, living and dead, it behooves us to also remember that a moral government (if such isn't a contradiction) could've avoided the need for so much tragedy and so many needless deaths.
Of the many guns of the state, more are pointed inward than outward.
Warm regards,
Col. Hogan
Stalag california
7 comments:
It's always the duty of those in power and the rest of us to examine what could have been done better in the past. I guess the best we can do is try and learn from the past.
Well, we already know that our politico-parasites aren't paying attention. We have to remember history as we learned it before the revisionism, and as we've seen it in life, and make a lot of noise, lest it be forgotten.
I've been wondering about politics in America and this two party thing, it's not the law or something is it?
Do you see a place for a third party in America, i think it would be good to have a third option when the other two are just not living up to expectations?
America seems to have evolved into a two-party system, in spite of my complaints and those of many others.
We have the Libertarian Party which, between the often-illegal and always immoral resistance of the two major parties (freezing them out of televised debates, for example), and the LP's own tendency to shoot itself in the foot, they've had little success. A few local offices; nothing more.
Dr Ron Paul ran as a Libertarian a few years ago and got less than a million votes. Running as a Republican this time, he promises to do a lot better.
That's a shame because of the limited choice, and i think sometimes the parties can sort of sit back and wait for the public to get tired of the other mob and get into power without earning the vote.
Many of us on the freedom side refer to them as Boot on Your Neck Party A, and Boot on Your Neck Party B, since both parties are evolving into a single party. The fly in their ointment is Boot on Your Neck party B's abject and irrational hatred for GWB. Odd, since he's so nearly in bed with them, that it's hard to make a differentiation.
US politics is not only very stupid, but rapidly becoming irrelevant to the lives of most people (except for taxes).
US politics is not only very stupid, but rapidly becoming irrelevant to the lives of most people (except for taxes).
Col., it's not only the US but global. As a matter of fact, government is only getting bigger, not smaller.
I think we could all do well just heading for the wilderness and living in communities out there. Starting again without their constant intervention. Believe me, I've thought about it.
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