Andrew J. Bacevich writes: "Present-day Americans, few of them directly affected by events in Iraq or Afghanistan, find war tolerable. They accept it. Since 9/11, war has become normalcy. Peace has become an entirely theoretical construct. A report of GIs getting shot at, maimed, or killed is no longer something the average American gets exercised about. Rest assured that no such reports will interfere with plans for the long weekend that Memorial Day makes possible."
Army soldiers Kevin Yeatman and Sgt. James Horris, a firefight with the Taliban, and a cigarette, 10/28/09. (photo: John Moore/Getty/TIME)
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He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.
Thanks for this insightful article. Our popular culture now has become an integral part of the war propaganda machine. Americans as still against these imperialist wars, but they do not know how to express their oppostion.
Don't forget that in Vietnam, the soldiers themselves pretty much refused to fight. Military discipline broke down and "fragging" was common. These soldiers -- mostly draftees -- learned from popular culture. Now we have a mercenary army very much separated from the population, except in the token ways Bacevich notes.
The goverment can create jobs for these troops when they get home with the money that they spend on the war. There are so many jobs that can be created here that have been neglected like our infrasturcture and water and sewer systems that need to be maintained and if we keep this war going we are only spending more money on bring more troops home that have been hurt.
We have killed Bin Laden and the job is done over there, now bring em home...
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