Guest guest Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 DRANT DAILY *May 30**, 2006* *Memorial Day:* Now come all the impassioned eulogies for Our Troops. Lies, all of it. I do not support our troops. I do not support anyone's troops. It is emblematic that throughout the USA we dedicate an official holiday to the deification and glorification of " our " warriors. All across America today people of every kind, hawks and doves, peaceniks and sabre rattlers, pro war and anti war, are stepping up proudly to proclaim that whether they support the war or not, they support our troops. I do not support our troops. They are not mine. They are not admirable brave men and women, nor are they fighting for our country. They are certainly not fighting for me. They are murderers and killers, torturers and rapists, who have willingly committed inhuman and unconscionable acts on uncountable victims. Some of them may also be victims but all of them are perpetrators. Many of them may be reluctant warriors, but all of them have the moral obligation to refuse to kill, and choose instead to follow orders. They may have been sent to do the filthy work of insane power mongers and incomprehensibly greedy pigs, but the filthy work they do, and often, as can be seen on countless video clips, with gusto and relish. America looks out into the world, and sees not the 100’s of thousands of humans we have killed, wounded, or burned beyond recognition, but sees only its own brave soldiers, as if they were the victims. And this of course is why we go so easily into war. For Us, the Others don’t exist. It is all about Us, and Our sons and Our mothers and Our children. Supporting our Troops means we support ourselves, and rationalizes what we have done. For each of us has made the same moral choice as each of the soldiers. Each of us has, in one way or another, followed orders, and death and destruction have been the result. We must find the courage to NOT support the troops, and NOT support what we all have committed. We must blame the troops, and blame ourselves, and take full responsibility for what we and our soldiers have done. Today should be called Victims’ Day. A day for the nation to stop everything and contemplate and examine in extreme detail, everything we have brought on humanity. For centuries. A day when we individually and collectively face the truth. Today let us mark the beginning of redemption by memorializing and humanizing and glorifying the victims of our crimes. Let us march and sadly display the tragic photos of those we have killed, and not of Us, their killers. */~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/* Today's *DRANT* <http://drrant.blogspot.com/> --- /Ill-tempered, Iconoclastic, Impatient and Ideologically-unpredictable views, comments, and sources about the World, how we humans are messing it up, and how we can all DO SOMETHING about it./ For the complete, entire Megillah, please access : *http://drrant.blogspot.com* <http://drrant.blogspot.com/> * * */~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/* WARNING By Presidential Executive Order, the National Security Agency (NSA) may be reading this email without warning, warrant, or notice, judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse, or protection. " Patrick Collins " collinspw wrote: Sun May 28, 2006 9:05am(PDT) Reflecting on Memorial Day Last night I watched " Saving Private Ryan " on TV. I realized how I empathize with those who serve in the military for their dedication and self-sacrifice - even giving their lives for others as Jesus asked us to do. " Greater love than this no one has that he would lay down his life for others. " I also felt the inner conflict military persons must feel in the hard choices they have to make in conscience to " do their duty. " WW II seemed to be war that had to be fought - and perhaps Korea as well. But, as one who finds war to be the wrong solution to difference always (at best the lesser of two evils) , I found the horrors of war to be in such violation of everything I stand for. Vietnam and the current incursion into the sick yet sovereign nation of Iraq are exampes in my lifetime of a great failure of humanity. It leaves me with the conflicted position: how support the troops (which I want to do - God Bless and Protect Them - on both sides of the battles) and not support the actions in which they are engaged? Just sounding off out of both sides of my consciouenss in honor of Memorial Day. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 30, 2006 Report Share Posted May 30, 2006 thanks for that, look at what Andy Rooney had to say. The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please. No official day to remember is adequate for something like that. It's too formal. It gets to be just another day on the calendar. No one would know from Memorial Day that Richie M., who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different color socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck. No one would remember on Memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn’t marry Julie because he never came home from the war. Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima. For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us. They died. We use the phrase " gave their lives, " but they didn’t give their lives. Their lives were taken from them. There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people. Because I was in the Army during World War II, I have more to remember on Memorial Day than most of you. I had good friends who were killed. Charley Wood wrote poetry in high school. He was killed when his Piper Cub was shot down while he was flying as a spotter for the artillery. Bob O'Connor went down in flames in his B17. Obie Slingerland and I were best friends and co-captains of our high school football team. Obie was killed on the deck of the Saratoga when a bomb that hadn’t dropped exploded as he landed. I won’t think of them anymore tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I think of them any other day of my life. Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives. That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating. Written By Andy Rooney © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. . INSIDE A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney ey had to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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