 | Remember All The Sides of War on Memorial Day |
Memorial Day has become a national holiday for government propagandists, a period of a few days during which the pro-war, pro-military message gets a free pass, broadcast over and over again without any criticial examination.
They say that Memorial Day is a day when we’re supposed to remember the people who join the military. What we’re supposed to remember about them on Memorial Day, however, is very selective:
- They serve
- They sacrifice
- They are heroic
The truth about what people in the military do is much more complex than this one-sided selective remembrance. In truth, Memorial Day is as much about forgetting as it is about remembering. On Memorial Day, we are supposed to forget that people in the military also often:
- Use the politics of war to serve themselves
- Force other people to sacrifice
- Engage in acts of villainy
Memorial Day has become a day of collective revision of the memory of war. It has become a day for people to indulge in militaristic fantasies. It has become a day of avoidance and denial and delusion. It has become a day of making memorials that bear only partial resemblance to the reality upon which they are based.
If Memorial Day is to be a day of memory, then let it become a day of memory unfiltered. Let us remember everything about the military and about soldiers and about war, the good and the bad.
Let’s remember the American soldiers who have been sacrificed by politicians and a public hungry for war. Let’s also remember the people who have been killed by those soldiers.
Let’s remember the courage American soldiers show on the battlefield. Let’s also remember the way that they’ve had their individuality and moral restraint shaken out of them by the abuse of military training.
Let’s remember the tyrannical regimes that American soldiers have confronted. Let’s also remember the tyrants they have brought to power.
Let’s remember the suffering that American soldiers have endured. Let’s also remember the suffering that they have caused.
Let’s make Memorial Day a day of complete and honest memory, or let’s forget about it altogether.
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For the sake of argument, lets assume that your assessment of what we are “supposed” to remember is right (which I disagree with).
The reason why all that we are supposed to remember on Memorial Day is:
- They serve
- They sacrifice
- They are heroic
is because the rest of the year, people realize, debate, and talk about the other stuff you listed. Yes, there are civilian casualties in war. Yes, our troops have killed others husbands, wives, and children. Yes, the US military has been used to further foreign policy objectives (which include bring dictators and tyrants to power). But for one day out of the year, the actual people who served, sacrificed, and are heroic are honored for it, without dealing with the non-personal and vicious political games that go with it. The soldier did not choose where to start a war. The soldier did was his country requested of him in whatever conflict he or she served in. Those people deserved to be purely honored for one day. They are the reason that our nation still stands.
Comment by Joseph — 9/11/2007 @ 10:21 pm
Please clarify: Without U.S. troops in Iraq, our nation would not stand?
Comment by Jim — 9/11/2007 @ 10:40 pm
Memorial day is to remember and honor our troops and veterans, both living AND dead. Our troops and veterans are the reason our nation still stands.
While the troops being in Iraq may not have a current direct relationship to our nation standing, they are American soldiers. They did not choose where to fight. They are doing what every other soldier has been called upon to do, to serve and sacrifice. They deserve to be honored and respected like every other soldier who has ever served.
Comment by Joseph — 9/12/2007 @ 5:13 pm
So, to clarify, our nation WOULD stand without U.S. troops in Iraq.
Would our nation have stood without troops in Vietnam?
Comment by Jim — 9/12/2007 @ 5:54 pm
Remember that that was just a few of the hundreds of thousands of troops who have served. The ones involved with above picture. Theres a few bad apples on every tree, that doesn’t mean you chop the tree down. Remember 9-11-01. Jim and peregrin seem to have forgotten turning on the tv that morning and seeing the towers go down on every channel. Ill be sure to remember the people I serve next time I go back to Iraq, and see all the schools that the soldiers have built for the kids. Now girls can go to school. You be sure to remember me the next time your daughter reads something, and how you normally wouldnt think any thing of the fact that she can read. Open your eyes. The media doesn’t show these little things we do for Iraq. Because their not exciting or outragious stories.
Comment by David -Veteran — 9/22/2007 @ 7:18 am
I will remember that the military and all its hundreds of thousands of soldiers and high tech weapons was completely incompetent to stop the attacks of September 11, 2001, and has not been able even to find Osama Bin Laden or to defeat the Taliban.
What is the military good for, but allowing politicians to make dumb ideas into dangerous ideas?
Comment by Floop — 9/22/2007 @ 9:19 am
“Girls go to school now.”
Oh, baloney.
In 1990 the United States moved troops into Saudi Arabia, to protect a country in which women aren’t allowed to so much as drive a car or show their faces outside their homes (Saudi Arabia) from a country that had women college professors and doctors (Iraq).
The idea that U.S. military policy over the last two decades has been driven by a genuine desire to promote women’s rights in the Middle East is just plain laughable.
Give it up.
Comment by Ralph — 9/22/2007 @ 6:51 pm
Yes, Iraqi women are educated. The Iraqis are among the most sophisticated in the Middle East.
I wouldn’t discourage paying lip service to a U.S. desire to promote women’s rights, though, because many times it does end up happening that way. For example, Jordan now has seats in its legislature specifically set aside for women. More progressive than the U.S., in that regard.
Comment by Iroquois — 9/22/2007 @ 7:10 pm