This is my first post on Steemit and I thought I would make it about a question that I am having a hard time coming up with the right answer to satisfy my comfort in my position.....So here goes.
I am a patriotic American and I believe in having a strong military, and I apreciate all the hard work and sacrifice those men and women voulenteer for, BUT I also have a problem with people blindly following orders and rushing headlong into other countries to kill other people, when they have no idea what they are fighting for and thereby furthering the enrichment of the industrial war machine.
I mean when WW2 was happening there was a reason to fight, When the American civil war (1861-1865) was fought, we had a reason to fight. But now it seems that we are sending men and women to war for nothing more than oil or opium or lithium and I find myself torn between loyalty to my country and loyalty to a country that I know is doing under handed things around the world to inrich a very few people.
I find myself torn between honoring those who are serving, and standing up in defiance of them for their lack of clarity and self enlightenment.
Lets take for example Afghanistan. Our soldiers have been over there fighting for 14 years and the only thing that has come of it is an opioid epidemic in my home land. When the so called Taliban held that region the opium fields produced only a small potion of the worlds opium, now under US control they produce the largest portion of it and some how it is all going directly to the streets of the United States poisoning my people.
I mean we have soldiers over there guarding opium fields! Am I supposed to honor that person when they have full access to the knowledge of what's going on? Should I thank them for their service? I mean look what their "just following orders" has done.
I have the utmost respect for soldiers who go to war and fight for our country, WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED. But honestly when was the last time a war was really needed? When was the last time we were attacked?? 1941? Take Syria for another example muammar gaddafi was a fantasic leader for his people!
The only reason we went to war over there is because he had decided he was going to introduce a gold backed currency, and he was not going to sell his oil for anything but gold and the United States litterally could not afford to buy it like that.
So they went in and killed him and many others. Should I honor the soldiers that killed a great leader to his people under false pretences? Should I thank them for their service?
I do have honor for their service, when they are serving their country and their people. But I find it difficult to give thanks when they serve only a few far far away in an office building without a moments thought for the family living next door or the family they left without a father in another country who in all reality was doing nothing more than defending his homeland from a forigen invader who has come to plunder.
My country has been in a state of perpetual war. How can this be but for the blind following of orders. How is that an honorable act? How can I be thankful for the committing of atrocities? And on the other hand, how can I not? after all they are my country men and women.... And I am a patriot.