I know that no one wants to hear it but it is the truth, all those men and women did die for nothing but money greed and power. That is why they continue to die now in the middle east. Following the dogma doesnt do anything to stop this. I know its harsh but it is needed. Granted most have truly believed what they were doing was right, and died for that cause they believed in. But didn't the soldier wearing the nazi insignia on the front lines believe that also? Is he to be supported also because of his willingness to sacrifice his life for the greater good of Germany and its citizens? You can't justify supporting our troops in such a way without acknokleging that those German soldiers deserved that same support following that logic. If there were more citizens willing to speak out like this maybe, just maybe, it all couyld of been prevented. And that is what I wish to do. When the root cause is wrong then the whole thing is wrong. The only way to fix it is to change our whole way of viewing the military and its troops. There is nothing noble about what we are doing now, or what we have done for the past 60 years. Eisenhower, a 5 star general, warned us about the dangers of the military industrial complex and he was absolutley right and his warning went unheeded. The only way to stop it is to stand up against it, and if that means i have offended you I am sorry. I truly do not wish to do that.
Grindi, first the fact that you would call me a socialist or a communist is laughable. In no way does preaching against the military industrial complex reveal even a hint of what my economic theories may be. I am very much a capitalist and fan of democratic societies lol. The fact that you would even say that illustrates my point beautifully and shows just how ignorant you are. So quick to label me as an evil socialist because you have nothing else to say. Do you even know what a socialism and communisim are, beyond some vision of Stalin and Castro? You say that im dead wrong if I believe that Korea and Vietnam had nothing to do with my freedoms, well then explain what freedom they gave me exactly? I dont believe you can name a single one. What you may say is that it stopped the spread of communism, well, so what? Im pretty sure that the NVA over ran Saigon and North Korea is still communist till this day. Im pretty sure that didnt lead to the collapse of capitalism in America and all hell breaking loose on the streets. Those Soviet wolves didnt get to us, and it had nothing to do with us fighting those wars.
Quietman, my only response to your post is that we must not encourage them to answer that call in the first place. You are wrong in that we would still have the things like these forums even if they didnt enlist to serve in these unjust wars. It is that false belief which allows those wars to be waged. If ever our freedom was truly threatened, such as in WWII, there would most certainly be a draft. But honestly, that day will most likely never come or if it does it will be China who we will have to face and belive me you would certainly need a draft to have the slightest chance of winning that one. And I would support that draft 100% But hey, if WWIII does go off we probably will all be killed in nuclear explosions anyways.
Kapkid, you said "If you think our justices, liberties and freedoms are just for the military industrial complex and corporate businesses to line their pockets in the name of American Imperialism, and you just can't take it, there's a great party country to the North." What does this mean? I dont think our freedoms are just for the military industrial complex. I think our freedoms do exist, and men did fight and die to provide and protect them. However, all that happened previous to the ballooning of our defense budget. Its when people use those freedoms to justify wars that have nothing to do with them do the pockets get lined. We can still have these freedoms without lining those pockets and that is what they do not want you to know. That is why the propaganda exists, to make you believe that if America doesnt buy that new $500 million dollar fighter jet then the Soviets/Saddam/whoeverthenextbadguyis will get us and take away those freedoms which is false.
Why did the Soviet Union build up its military might like it did following WWII? Because Truman decieded to show them how big his d*** was by detonating the worlds most destructive weapon right next door to them, and then doing it again just to prove that they could. That act, which under the definition of terrorisim is the single largets act of terror in human history, put in motion the cold war and created any shred of credibility that exists for the justification of the amount of money which was spent on the military in the years which followed. And the money is the problem, because you cant spend 700 billion dollars on defense and then not get to use any of those cool attack helicopters they just built. You just cant.
Wow, I apologize for the length of this and if you have read the whole thing then I thank you. I guess after 1000 words it can be described as a bit of a rant, but if it caused one person to view things in a new light then it was worth it. I am thankfully done now lol.