look i'll say it again. you fought for our freedom if the action in which you were involved actually had the purpose and effect of freeing us or preserving what freedom we had. and if not, not. whatever they were fighting for in vietnam, it was not our freedom. whatever they are fighting for in iraq, it is not our freedom. for example, if the nation is manipulated by lies to go to war and start killing people, then what you're fighting/killing/dying for is lies and oppression. i guess maybe the idea is that all these people meant well, or were convinced by the government that they were fighting for our freeedom. but propaganda, self-delusion, and capitulation are not freedom. that everyone who ever served in the armed forces is an american hero is (a) ridiculous, and (b) precisely more manipulation to keep us killing. the fact that we all chorus these words in unison just shows how entirely manipulable we are, how desperately we want to do what they want us to do, no matter what it is.

every memorial day, you get the vague impression that the wars in vietnam and iraq, e.g., were a matter of repelling an invasion by the vietnamese or the iraqis, that america's heroes were defending the american heartland, that america would not exist at all if we hadn't killed those hundreds of thousands of people. freedom isn't free and the cost is high and america's veterans have preserved america for us so we could pass our freedom down to our children. think about that for like half a second with regard to these particular conflicts. it is an insanely ridiculous picture, more hyperbolically propagandistic even than the rhetoric of the vicious people who dragged your ass into these conflicts, or invented them out of whole cloth for political purposes etc. if you think the existence of our freedom required us to agent orange or napalm the fields around isolated villages in the vietnamese jungle etc, not to speak of the villages/villagers themselves, you are out of your bloodthirsty mind. if you think that the action was heroic, then i want you to explain to me why.

the answer can't be that the people who actually fought were convinced it was heroic. being an idiot or a sucker, or even responding comprehensibly to a situation about which you have been completely deceived, is not heroism. you are not a hero in virtue of the fact that your belief system has been manipulated by dick cheney, even if the situation is understandable, even if the truth is entirely unavailable. the most we could say for you at that point is that you, too, are a victim.

i'll thank you for your service if what you did was actually service, or if you should have my gratitude because you helped me in some way. if you just shot people on the other side of the world because someone told you to, then thanking you for your service is literally impossible. there was no service, and nothing for which to thank you.

service to your country (=your government) is admirable if your government is admirable. if not, not. memorial day rhetoric would make heroes out concentration camp guards, killing fields killers: anyone who "serves their country," i.e. destroys their own conscience and does what they tell you to do. connecting that to 'freedom' is beyond ironic; it's obscene.

Comments

[Henry]

Thank you for saying that. Every soldier who is ordered to kill someone has an obligation to decide for himself whether the order is moral. Some of us, including Buffy St. Marie, have known that since the Vietnam war; in "Universal Soldier" (which Donovan made famous), she sang,

He's the universal soldier
And he really is the blame
But his orders comes from
far away no more.
They come from him.
And you and me....

She's right, except that his orders didn't come from you and me; they came from presidents from Lyndon Johnson through Barack Obama, and from Congress, because it could have stopped them.

[CB]

Stunning. I officially love you. Godamn that was too good.

[1littlewho]

amazing.
i(do)love you.

[jack browne]

No shit. Been saying this to blockheads in my family - one of whom "served" in Iraq - for several years. Makes my skin crawl when soldiers get applauded in airports and restaurants. War - organized murder - at the level of an athletic contest. Go get 'em guys! Haven't seen anyone lay it out so clearly. Well done.

[el serracho]

bravo, crispy.

[CB]

I emailed your blog entry to my sexaginarian father. He heartily demanded I forward on his words:

"Give" me access to this man - I wish to stand up and applaud - I wish to thank him - I wish to congratulate him for his testicular fortitude - I wish to donate to what ever cause sustains and maintains him - this needs to be required reading by everyone left in this country who still reads including those who only read the sports page - shove it down their myopic esophagoricall minds - I want to tell him that when I wouldn't give up my 1st class seat a couple of years ago for The Heroes in the Back of The Plane like "all" the others did - that I was jeered during the flight and as I disembarked was followed and cat called by portions of that limited jeering mind set - glad that I was only changing flights - had I departed for luggage and transport no telling what might have happened - I'm sure that Sean Hannerty got several calls on that event !!!! Further my free drink service was "conveniently "delayed / ignored while "the heroes" were served - soooo on more than one occasion to the consternation of the 1st class cabin crew I would get up proceed to the distribution cabinets and "help" myself!!

[Kerry]

Bravo.

[Lisa Simeone]

In this regard, for this post, I have to add my "Bravo" to the chorus.

60 Minutes just re-broadcast a story about soldiers in Afghanistan and the tributes at Arlington for them. Just as infuriating as the broadcast the first time around. We shouldn't be there, we shouldn't be fighting there, it's a pointless, losing battle. And yes, though it was all started by the craptastic Bush, this is Obama's Vietnam.

But we never learn. Memorial Days come and go, and there's a constant hypocritical pretense of "honoring" our military. Is that how we honor them -- by killing them in pointless wars? And slaughtering god knows how many innocent civilians along the way?

Disgusting.

[Wayde tardif]

I just said this kind of thing the other day . . . But was summarily booed and shot down as being "with the terrorists for saying so." I am tired of Voltare's statement "I may not agree with what you say but would defend with my life your right to say it," as out of fashion, out of sorts and outlandish. Words like that were the founding position upon which this country was established but has been forgotton. I'm glad that you have written your thoughts. I would defend your right to say them, even if they were different than my own.

[Henry]

Sorry to be pedantic, but as to the statement, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," Wikiquote says, "Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's beliefs on freedom of thought and expression." The Yale Book of Quotations confirms this.

[Meg]

Adam DB Myerson posts a pic of himself with teh caption, "Adam Myerson, Captain of Team Mountain Khakis, huddles up with his troops to talk tactics."

The irony is larger than his stoopid ink.

Troops? Troops Adam? Please. What a nitwit. He and the rest of his dirtbag crew can continue to be drunk and rant on Memorial Day as if what they say matters. Typical Liberals---they like your opinion ONLY if you agree with them and they can't stand a differing POV so they have a temper tantrum.

[adamcrazypants]

DEATH TO AMERICA!

[adamcrazypants]

"I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag."

- Smedley Butler

[Adam Myerson]

Hi Meg. You're adorable.

Do you know how the internet, particularly Facebook works? Someone else posted a picture of me and the team, along with the caption. And then they tagged me in it. Cyclingreporter.com? You know, they report? On cycling?

The only sense I can make of why you'd leave this comment here is that I linked to this blog in a completely different conversation on Facebook. One you apparently didn't like. But regardless, the caption (and the irony) is not mine. Further, you project my personal POV onto the rest of my teammates? As if they're all my philosophic disciples?

Apparently what I say matters to you enough that you followed it on Facebook, but then commented on it here. Both of which are really, really strange.

[Dan]

Adam - You really put the breath into the all-too-common 'Boston mouth-breather'.

You poke and jab at the military, Memorial Day and if anyone disagreed with your Facebook rants and yer mouth-breating tantrum, you threaten to delete their posts and tell em' to de-friend you. Nom nomnom Adam, where'd ya ride recently:

http://www.facebook.com/adammyerson#!/photo.php?pid=13011288&id=557995000

http://www.airforcecyclingclassic.com/

What a tool, ya'll ride in a race sponsored by the US Air Force, LOL. It's called hypocrisy 101.

Air Force Cycling Classic...Clarendon Cup...brought to you by Northrup Grumman...ridden by Adam. What's next? A lecture/temper tantrum from you on veganism whilst you eat a McDonald's burger? Tell us there rocket scientist...if you actually won that race (not that you could) would you have gone along with the theme of the Clarendon Cup 2010 'The Year of the Air Force family' and donated your winnings back to a military family in need? Or would ya have bought some cheapo beer and tried to maintain that lowbrow buzz of yours? Duh:

http://www.capflyer.com/stories/061010/sports_28231.shtml

Next time you get in the face of the military families on your Facebook, mock the military, just be sure to eat humble pie when you realize..."Umm, uh, duh doy...I'm utilizing the Air Force's coin to ride in their race with my bike" (with yer mouth open).

Serious, make fun of hamburgers only to ride in a Burger King TT skinsuit for money would be weak, but mocking the military only to race in the Air Force Clarendon Cu weeks later....just makes you look and sound really, really d-u-m-b. Cycledumb.

Then again, we might be giving you too much credit for even knowing anything about the race you were in and who sponsored it. Beer Adam, beer. Beer and veganism = kewl. One dimensional thought = kewler.

Good luck w/that. Cycle however ya wanna, just try to sound smarter.