I am a vet. In hindsight I knew little about what I might be fighting for. Personally I had voted for Jimmy Carter and for peace. The year 1976 was marked with a vivid understanding (apparently only by some) that the war in Vietnam was not only a failure, but was a waste of life, both from soldiers and civilians on BOTH sides as well as the economic havoc war plays on nations for decades to come.
I will admit that while I was in the US Navy, I at first agreed with the thought that there were bad guys in this world, and then there was the USA, you know, a “Global Force for Good”. Well it did not take me long to figure out that there was a narrative going on (although that word was not yet popular in my world as a 20 year old).
I was teaching electronics at a US Naval Station where Iranians, Iraqis, Saudis and Australians were my students. All of a sudden, the Iranian hostage crises that involved 52 American diplomats and citizens being held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. What I did know is that the most honest Iranian students confided in me with the reality of the Shah’s dictatorship, complete with secret police (SAVIK), for decades propped up by US support. At this time I was completely clueless to what happened 5 years before I was born when in 1953, the US CIA orchestrated an assassination on the democratically elected president of Iran so that regime change could keep Iranian oil for US and UK political interests.
The bottom line was, that I did not fully appreciate the real world’s Geo-politics until after I left the US Navy.
This happens a lot, even the highly decorated US Marine saw things more 20/20 after he left the military:
“Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. The was the “war to end wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United State patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure”.
Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month!
All that they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill…and be killed” – Smedley Butler “War is a Racket”
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in both the Mexican Revolution and World War I.
Butler was, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. But AFTER he left the service, he said:
I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country’s most agile military force – the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service.
Never had an original thought UNTIL I left the service. Bingo!
“.. I was blind, now I see ..” John 9:25
What helps me is that I have read other vet’s thoughts on their experiences and then waking up later in life to see things more 20/20. It is as if the US military wants idealistic 17/18/19 year olds as cannon fodder before any of these young people start to have an original thought, you know, after 12 years of indoctrination in US government schools.
Tom Wood’s shares a letter he received. I include it in full because I agree with 95% of what this man my age shared:
I retired from the Marines in ’97, having been disgusted with the constant yammer of “thank you for your service,” having spent my last decade active, just trying to keep my Marines alive, able to think clearly, and not absorb the b.s. dished out daily, about “the importance of these wars.”
It’s long overdue for people like you to be telling the truth about “what we did for you,” which is mostly to produce the most dangerous time in the world, in my own lifetime. I spent a good bit of time in places where we weren’t allowed to know where we were, and only after retiring was I able to find out what we were being used for. The Marines spent lots of time “over the horizon,” as “security” for operations we weren’t to know were happening, probably like what was done in Benghazi.
It’s still embarrassing when I get thanked. I want more than anything to explain how we managed to destroy half a dozen nations, spent trillions of dollars on tons of bombs, cruise missiles — and while we didn’t kill everyone, a lot who survived weren’t very happy to see us.
I spent almost no time in the Middle East in my second decade, only because I spent much time deployed in the first, at a time when we (the U.S.) were just ramping up in preparation for the destruction. I retired with 19 years, five months, 15 days, medically retired for multiple sclerosis, and I’m glad it happened, because I was a “lifer,” believed in what I was doing, and in the beginning actually thought there was good cause for our invasions.
I don’t think I would have understood what I know now, except that I got out, and began to see news (not on TV) and got to watch Benghazi, the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, almost like a civilian, and became determined to learn why. The best I can say for myself is I thank God I was able to get out without ever killing anyone.
I can’t really describe how easy it is to “serve” without knowing how evil the work is, until one hits a certain level, and then it hits you, and you begin to question everything, or you shut down and try to pretend you don’t know you’re doing wrong.
I enlisted because it was a family tradition, military service, and I enjoyed “seeing the world.” I truly believed we were “defending the nation,” all the way till I was sent back from Iraq for having “too much deployed time,” and got to watch that war on the sidelines. I only found out how we got into it about a decade ago, and at the same time discovered that what Saddam Hussein stated as his cause for invading Kuwait was in fact true — as forces on the ground, after his death, discovered the horizontal drilling done from Kuwait into Iraq’s oil field.
I enjoy reading your work just because I know it’s the truth. It’s kind of strange, after all the years of lies. I sent dozens of good men to war for bad reasons, and all I can say about it is that I prepared them for what they would see, and I was here, when they got back, to help them deal with the blowback.
I’ve watched one close friend shut down completely, not able to deal with what he saw as a metal smith on C-130’s, not even combat. One close friend spent six ears in Iraq destroying munitions caches, as a combat engineer. He is completely oblivious to the evil side of what was done….
I dearly wish it were easier to explain how one can be oblivious to so much of the reality of war, while being caught up in the moment — which is every moment at war. As a boy, I never understood why veterans never spoke of their experience, but as a young Marine knew why, having watched Vietnam unfold, while expecting to go there in my own turn. I didn’t, but did go to Beirut, to Africa a few times, and cruised the Middle East for a few years. I look back and wonder how I missed so much that was true, yet knowing it was because each of us, all of us, were tasked with almost insuperable jobs, that literally consumed us; we were always doing too much to really see what we were enmeshed in.
I spend much time in the news, around the world, trying to tell the truths I’ve discovered in my own searches. I pray a lot now, I spend a lot of time hating this government, and the many who won’t even look up and see it for what it is. I thank God for the m.s., and forcing me out of the Corps, which was my family, for so many years, knowing “the Marines” are good, honorable Americans, but we were always doing dirty work for political purposes, never for any good purpose.
Thanks for speaking out, and stating something that needs be said, time and time again.
There are two possible ways for vets to react when they begin to sense the truth about the evil they were part of. “I can’t really describe how easy it is to “serve” without knowing how evil the work is, until one hits a certain level, and then it hits you, and..
- you begin to question everything, or
- you shut down and try to pretend you don’t know you’re doing wrong.
He goes on to thank God for his Multiple Sclerosis which forced him out of the Marines so he could then see clearly and know the truth!
Powerful!
May each of us seek out truth and research things that are not politically correct .. and not necessarily aligned with the empire’s narratives .. since the truth will set one free, right?
And you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free – John 8:32
-SF1