11/12/2016
Veterans Day reflection by SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Jack Gilroy:
Please don’t thank me for my service
The election is over, but not for American peace and justice activism.
Neither candidate said much if anything of value about core issues in our culture — militarism, climate change, Medicare for all. That means all Americans must pick up the pieces of this angry, vitriolic and sociopathic campaign of at least one of the presidential candidates. The American people have an obligation to teach the truth to their children and grandchildren, to petition the new government to act in the common good, not the good of the military-corporate-media-politicalreligious complex. All of these institutions hide behind the lie of patriotism and use fear to make our main export, weapons of death and destruction.
Corporate America gleefully watches war-making profits soar. Many Christian and Jewish clergy preach in support of militarism, pray for the troops, send their ordained clergy to war to pray for victory, arms raised as Moses types, calling on God to help kill the enemy.
Much of this would change if courage to tell the truth became a character trait of religious leaders. Instead, most priests, ministers and rabbis do no more than pray for the troops and bless them for “serving their country to keep us free.” Lies, lies and more lies.
Militarism, enabled by arms makers and political enablers, robs our young with lies of false patriotism. Young men and women are led to believe (usually by those who never served in the military) that they must die to keep us free. It’s the big lie of American culture.
We killed 3 million Vietnamese, poisoned land and people with dioxin. We have invaded and bombed nation after nation since the treachery of Vietnam, where our actions are today present in children born without eyes, swollen heads, no arms or legs. International research points to one cause, Agent Orangedioxin, made in the USA and sprayed over millions of acres of Vietnam to expose “the enemy.”
Our blood trail in the past 15 years in seven Muslim nations has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Millions have become refugees in this USA-made diaspora following our crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A new direction for United States foreign policy must break from violence if we are to be serious about stopping terrorism. Our actions inflame young men and women who learn to hate us for our actions. A Global Marshall Plan that would enrich our own nation and impoverished people around the globe can happen. We need leadership of compassion and generosity. Ask your clergy to encourage prayer for that change to happen. And don’t mourn the loss of your presidential candidate; organize for a Global Marshall Plan.
On Veterans Day, 41 years after the end of our Vietnam horror and in our 15th year of attacks on seven Muslim nations, are we supposed to be thankful? Perhaps we may want to say to our veterans: I’m sorry you were lied to by our government.
