Memorial Day Question: Why do we need to honor 6,440 U.S. soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Answer: Because they were asked to go there.
To put this day into perspective, I’ve re-published this image by “ARG” at Pixwit (with permission of the artist):
Additional note from the artist:
Chicken Heart Winner (Five-deferment Dick)
November 17, 2005: As Vice President Dick Cheney attacks the Democrats for questioning the honesty of the president’s warmaking, Congressman John Murtha, himself a decorated Korean War and Vietnam War combat veteran and a staunch warhawk, announces it’s time to bring the troops home. Concerning Mr. Cheney’s ranting, Murtha resorted to uncharacteristic sarcasm: “I like guys who got five deferments and have never been there and send people to war and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.” Concerning Cheney’s lack of military service, he’s on record: “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”
I received this comment regarding this post on Facebook:
“I’m not sure many vets would appreciate the overt smear against a VP, and reducing their service to this level. Cheney was an ass, but leave it alone for just one day, eh, Erich?”
Here is my response:
How is it even possible to “smear” a man who started two needless wars and who made it fashionable for Americans to torture? Being silent on this day sterilizes the process by which Americans march off to new wars. To be silent today would be to dishonor the dead. Many thousands of soldiers would be alive today had more of us loudly protested Cheney’s warmongering. Further, his personal attitude toward service correlates highly with his willingness to throw American men and women into harm’s way. I would be dishonoring hundreds of thousands of American soldiers had I failed to speak up, repeatedly, at a time when the U.S. is actively considering starting new needless military actions against numerous countries, including Yemen and Iran and posturing with its military to antagonize China. It’s time to stop these atrocities. I have nothing to be ashamed of; I didn’t serve as stenographer for our politicians, like most of our mass media. I did not approve of either of these ongoing wars. I’ve spoken out loud against them for many years. I won’t be silent, especially on THIS day. As Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I want this day to be the end of more than ten years of insanity. I’ll end with one more quote: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Democracy Now! returns to Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history, where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit. We hear the soldiers’ voices as they return their medals one by one from the stage. “I’m here to return my Global War on Terror Service Medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and the people of Afghanistan,” said Jason Hurd, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army. “I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in those countries and around the globe.” Scott Kimball, an Iraq war veteran, adds: “For all the servicemembers and veterans who are against these wars, you are not alone!”
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/28/memorial_day_special_us_veterans_of