American Lessons

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced that he has come to agree with General Patraeus that reducing troop levels in Iraq to below surge numbers would not be appropriate at the moment.

As usual, my response to the situation is 180 degrees from the official position. It seems to me that our government has pushed our soldiers to the limit. It is common knowledge that military families are strained by the over long deployments boosted last year from the traditional 12 months to 15 months without relief. Long deployments including the additional troops we sent in for the surge mean that there are fewer troops available to provide relief for those already in-country. What’s next, another extension of deployment length?

The rate of our military personnel who are returning from Iraq with PTSD is phenomenal and we have already had reports of soldiers so diagnosed being returned to their units after rest without treatment for the disorder other than some ill-advised calmative prescriptions. What will happen to them or their platoon mates upon their return to combat situations is a matter of very unpleasant speculation, but there is no doubt that the situations to which they are subjected are traumatic and exteremely dangerous.

Top that off with the kind of orders they operate under, and it’s a wonder more of them don’t crack under the strain. We fill our children’s heads with tales of the uncommon valor and moral righteousness of the American soldier then we send them off to war where they are commanded to set bait like weapons in Iraqi streets and then shoot anyone who picks them up (Springfield News-Leader 2/11/08: Sniper Gets 10 Years for Killing Civilian); or station them in Abu Ghraib with orders to “soften up” prisoners for interrogation with inhumane and torturous methods. Then we expect them to someday come back home and rejoin “normal” society.

We teach our children to honor our soldiers, but then commit the troops to illegal and unjust wars topped off inhumane orders and abusive treatment of the disorders this duplicity necessarily generates.

The hypocritical enormity of the training of our children in this way struck me Sunday morning, and I began the day by writing a song about it. Here, it will have to suffice as a poem, but I hope in that form as well as in music, it will state its case with some impact.

AMERICAN LESSONS

Sing to me of freedom. Sing to me of love.
Sing to me of higher powers. Tell me of the dove.

Then give to me a rifle. Give us all a gun.
And we will teach the others the power of our love.

Sing to me of free speech. And sing to me of love.
Sing to me of democracy. And tell me of the dove.

Then pass the ammunition. And send me off to war,
And I will show the other side just what freedom’s for.

And I will show the other side just what freedom’s for.



Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle