Liberty93

Joined

• started 8 topics
• posted 180 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Liberty93

• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  Wars pay off handsomely for those who start them. As long as the bottom line is there, there will be people who are always trying to get wars started.
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  And sure those who don't want to take part act under extreme duress, but there's still a moment where they weigh their options and say "Yes." That yes, however coerced it may be, is still willingly given. People throughout the ages have had to act against that same sort of pressure in order to follow their consciences. That's why I say that I do respect this one thing about the Witnesses... I knew some older witnesses who had done jail time during Vietnam because they said NO, meant it, and stood by it. That takes courage. Killing half-armed peasants with whom you have no personal conflict in a country halfway around the world just because the government tells you to takes something, maybe a sort of courage, but definitely not the courage that has enabled people throughout time to resist all of the threats and punishments sent against them by those who have power.
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  I look at it like this - when you sign up to, essentially, be a foreign, imperial occupier wreaking death and devastation on foreign countries, you can't just excuse yourself by saying that other people chose those policies, because you chose to participate.
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  When you freely and voluntarily join a group, and then choose to obey that group's policies (even if under coercion) you are, to some extent, responsible for those policies. Policies, which I would add, would be totally ineffectual without people who are willing to blindly enact them...
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  Anyone want to name one thing? Please? Is this just going to turn into some weird hybrid of Fox News and a DC where everyone "knows" that the military plays some role in keeping us from but seems oddly unable to say precisely what this role is?
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  LeavingWT, name ONE concrete thing that the military has done in the past hundred years to make that possible? MAYBE fighting against Nazi germany, but they couldn't invade Britain, so it's unlikely that they could invade here.

  Short of that, what can you point out? The Vietnamese divisions that boarded junks and landed at Long Beach? The Taliban members who are currently marching down to Lahore, Pakistan to board rickety old freighters so that we'll have to "fight them over here"? Perhaps the North Koreans who crossed the 38th parallel and then headed straight for Seattle?

  Oh, wait, nothing of the sort has happened since the War of 1812....

  Now, you could point to September 11th as an example of the sort of threat they defend us from. But even then, that was a massive failure to defend anyone, and even if it hadn't been, multi-billion dollar submarines, missiles, carriers, stealth fighters and a massive global empire played absolutely no role in defending us from that, or from anything else whatsoever.

  So how, precisely, are they guaranteeing our freedoms?
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  What has the military done, in concrete terms, to actually defend your freedom?

  Wouldn't that require you to actually have freedom first? And even if you weren't basically a serf for the banks and the feds, what would dropping 500lb guided bombs in crowded urban areas actually have to do with keeping you from being subjected to foreign invaders?
• 
  20

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Liberty93 in

  1. social
  2. family

  thank you for your service?by laurence m. vance.

  recently by laurence m. vance: the warmongers lexicon.

  it is without question that americans are in love with the military.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  Thank You for Your Service?

  by Laurence M. Vance

  Recently by Laurence M. Vance: The Warmonger’s Lexicon

  

  It is without question that Americans are in love with the military. Even worse, though, is that their love is unqualified, unconditional, unrelenting, and unending.

  I have seen signs praising the troops in front of all manner of businesses, including self-storage units, bike shops, and dog grooming.

  Many businesses offer discounts to military personnel not available to doctors, nurses, and others who save lives instead of destroy them.

  Special preference is usually given to veterans seeking employment, and not just for government jobs.

  Many churches not only recognize veterans and active-duty military on the Sunday before holidays, they have special military appreciation days as well.

  Even many of those who oppose an interventionist U.S. foreign policy and do not support foreign wars hold the military in high esteem.

  All of these things are true no matter which country the military bombs, invades, or occupies. They are true no matter why the military does these things. They are true no matter what happens while the military does these things. They are true no matter which political party is in power.

  The love affair that Americans have with the military – the reverence, the idolatry, the adoration, yea, the worship – was never on display like it was at the post office the other day.

  While at the counter shipping some packages, a U.S. soldier, clearly of Vietnamese origin in name and appearance, dressed in his fatigues, was shipping something at the counter next to me. The postal clerk was beaming when he told the soldier how his daughter had been an MP in Iraq. Three times in as many minutes I heard the clerk tell the soldier – with a gleam in his eye and a solemn look on his face – "Thank you for your service." The clerk even shook the soldier’s hand before he left.

  I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing, and I am no stranger to accounts of military fetishes in action.

  Aside from me not thanking that soldier for his service – verbally or otherwise – I immediately thought of four things.

  One, what service did this soldier actually render to the United States? If merely drawing a paycheck from the government is rendering service, then we ought to thank every government bureaucrat for his service, including TSA goons. Did this soldier actually do anything to defend the United States, secure its borders, guard its shores, patrol its coasts, or enforce a no-fly zone over U.S. skies? How can someone blindly say "thank you for your service" when he doesn’t know what service was rendered?

  Two, is there anything that U.S. soldiers could do to bring the military into disfavor? I can’t think of anything. Atrocities are dismissed as collateral damage in a moment of passion in the heat of battle by just a few bad apples. Unjust wars, we are told, are solely the fault of politicians not the soldiers that do the actual fighting. Paul Tibbets and his crew are seen as heroes for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Before he died, Tibbets even said that he had no second thoughts and would do it again. I suspect that if the United States dropped an atomic bomb tomorrow on Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing everyone and everything, and declaring the war on terror over and won, a majority of Americans would applaud the Air Force crew that dropped the bomb and give them a ticker-tape parade.

  Three, why is it that Americans only thank American military personnel for their service? Shouldn’t foreign military personnel be thanked for service to their country? What American military worshippers really believe is that foreign military personnel should only be thanked for service to their government when their government acts in the interests of the United States. Foreign soldiers are looked upon as heroic if they refuse to obey a military order to shoot or kill at the behest of their government as long as such an order is seen as not in the interests of the United States. U.S. soldiers, however, are always expected to obey orders, even if it means going to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, or Libya under false pretenses.

  And four, what is a Vietnamese man – who most certainly has relatives, or friends or neighbors of relatives, that were killed or injured by U.S. bombs and bullets during the Vietnam War – doing joining the U.S. military where he can be sent to shoot and bomb foreigners like the U.S. military did to his people?

  And aside from these four things, I’m afraid I must also say: Sorry, soldiers, I don’t thank you for your service.

  • I don’t thank you for your service in fighting foreign wars.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in fighting without a congressional declaration of war.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in bombing and destroying Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in expanding the war on terror to Pakistan and Yemen.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in occupying over 150 countries around the world.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in garrisoning the planet with over 1,000 military bases.
  • I don’t thank you for your service in defending our freedoms when you do nothing of the kind.
  • I don’t thank you for your service as part of the president’s personal attack force to bomb, invade, occupy, and otherwise bring death and destruction to any country he deems necessary.

  Thank you for your service? I don’t think so.

  July 19, 2011

  Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] writes from central Florida. He is the author of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State, The Revolution that Wasn't, and Rethinking the Good War. His latest book is The Quatercentenary of the King James Bible. Visit his website.
• 
  19

  Told my Parents about me joining the Military.

  by lucky1rish in

  1. social
  2. family

  so, i'm back, and many of you wanted me to post the unfolding drama that is my life at the moment.. last week i came out and told my father that i was in the navy, and was going to be trying out for aviation search air rescue.

  it's an extensive rate, and one that has a 40% failure rate among those who qualify.

  so needless to say, i do nothing but run and swim.. anyways, the reaction was what i expected.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  -off topic warning-

  I hate to say it, but this is one place that I do agree with the JWs. I don't think there's anything honorable about what the US military is doing around the world.

  Defending our freedoms? PAH

  More like keeping Raytheon's bottom line nice and fat...
• 
  26

  i need to know if jehovahs witnesses are actually told to ....

  by looloo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  completly ignore disfellowshipped children and never speak at all to them , also what about the children of the disfellowshipped children that are growing up unaware of the "truth " ?

  im thinking of writing to my inlaws who have never bothered with our child for two and a half years to tell them to just walk on by if they see us as it would confuse her if they saw us and acted as though nothing has happened .

  then they will be good jws and obediant to the watchtower and not blame us for not letting them see her which is what they lie and tell people !.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Liberty93

  Jehovah .. what a douchebag,