Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Pro-War Cliches

Gary Sudborough | 29.06.2003 19:27 | Anti-militarism | World

An analysis of the illogical nature of the cliches used to justify US interventions and war crimes in other countries.

A common pro-war cliche used by soldiers in defense of their decision to go to war is: " I am fighting for my country." Other variations on this cliche used by both soldiers and civilians are: "My country, right or wrong" and "Love it (my country) or leave it." I realize these are emotional responses possibly driven by the territorial imperative social animals have wired into their brains to defend a given region. This may be the origin of patriotism or nationalism, manipulated to a great extent by the ruling elites for their own interests.

Still, I think it is important to logically analyze what is meant by the word "country." Is it the people, the landscape, the government, the corporations, the constitution, the freedoms, the culture, a combination of things, or exactly what? The resolution of this ambiguity is necessary because the interests of the government and the corporations are not identical to the interests of the American people. For example, an American soldier may return home to find that his former or future job has been transferred to a sweatshop in some Third World country. These soldiers may find their unions broken or their environment polluted by unscrupulous corporations. They may discover these corporations have been reducing pensions and health insurance benefits and lobbying hard for the privatization of Social Security. In addition, if they are ill from some poisonous substance used in the war in which they participated, they will unfortunately find they must struggle to obtain medical benefits. The veterans exposed to Agent Orange and depleted uranium were told their illnesses were simply psychological, and they had to pressure the Defense Department for years to obtain any compensation. While American soldiers were fighting in the latest war on Iraq, George W. Bush was simultaneously and quietly cutting 25 billion dollars from veteran's benefits. World War 1 veterans were promised a bonus for service in that war and after the federal government postponed the payment year after year, these veterans decided to march on Washington, DC in 1932, camp there and demand their bonus. They were attacked by troops under General Douglas MacArthur. Tear gas and live ammunition were used on them. So much for veterans being held in high esteem.

Soldiers who naively believe they are fighting to defend their country or freedom are actually fighting for the large corporation's control over the natural resources and labor power of other countries. They may get a parade and some medals on their return home, but after that they will be treated as disposable items and a burden. The federal government would rather spend money on corporate subsidies, more weapons, tax cuts for the wealthy, future wars for corporate domination and, in general, an upward redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling elite. Ruling classes all through history have always been so greedy that they want everything, and the workers have had to struggle mightily to obtain anything at all.

American soldiers who travel thousands of miles to bomb, mutilate, kill and destroy poor Third World people and their dwellings are not brave heroes defending their country and freedom, as depicted by the corporate media. They are brainwashed war criminals, who are actually fighting against their own interests because the interests of working people everywhere are the same-control over the conditions of their work place and the full value of their labor. Nazi soldiers excuses of only doing their duty were not accepted as valid after World War 2. Neither should American soldiers be excused from responsibility by statements of fighting for their country or other meaningless cliches.

Gary Sudborough
- e-mail: IconoclastGS@aol.com
- Homepage: http://www.theblackflag.org

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech