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LETTERS / The Mechanical Assumption That America Has More Freedom Than Others Is Unquestioned

Dear Editor, 

Our soldiers often display courage under fire but so did Japanese, Nazi, and Confederate soldiers who fought against freedom. We don’t judge those soldiers’ heroes because the winners write the history books. How have our aggressive wars around the world, protected freedom or been different? Our troops, we’re told, have made sacrifices “to protect our freedom.”  Made sacrifices or been sacrificed for profit?

The mechanical assumption that America has more freedom than others is unquestioned. Surveys show we’re far behind Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and others. How many Millions of Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis have we butchered for nothing?  Show me how any of it preserved freedom.

The rest of the planet pays a high price for “our freedom”. It’s justified because ”we’re the city on a hill, light unto nations, bringing democracy and human rights to a globe thirsty for improvement by us”. “Support our troops” actually means “support the mission,” no matter how illegitimate.

The ugly barbarity at Abu Ghraib or Mi Lai wasn’t heroic, accidental or isolated. A better option would be actively prosecuting the “leaders” who create such policies, degrading our soldiers. “Support our troops; send Donald Rumsfeld to jail,” should have been the slogan. Don’t say any of this to the true believers as they will attack you for being an ignorant commie worthy of a trip to the guillotine. They choose to avoid introspection as they line up for their blue pill.

Service, Honor, Respect; what have any of these words to do with American military actions in the world today? What’s honorable about occupying Afghanistan for two corrupt governments? How’s respect cultivated by mass murder of civilians using drones? What kind of “service” is involved in establishing an international network of torture centers in defiance of international law and morality? Let’s honor our soldiers by abolishing the imperial military and develop an honest defense policy to replace it.

Want to cut government spending; find 8.5 trillion dollars the pentagon can’t/won’t account for.

There’re always lots of cheerleaders for war. If we were to vote for war, and those who voted for it were made to be soldiers, there would be far fewer cheerleaders. We might stop being global busybodies. There’re always whipping you up for their wars with the daily terror and the cheerleaders roar as long as it’s someone else’s son and certainly not themselves.

The constant whine from “our government” is about America making the world safe for freedom and liberty only using force in self-defense. History proves otherwise; America ranks as one of the world’s most aggressive nations when you examine the evidence.  We’re sheltered from the continual wars by oceans yet America won’t mind its own business or stop murdering abroad for political, corporate and colonial ambition.

The end of the American way of life is upon us.  Less than half of the population is employed; incomes are dropping, as expenses increase. The divide between the rich and the poor in this country grows greater, and the arrival of Obamascare is creating more chaos.  More than half of “consumers” get some government benefit to eat.

Americans grow more apathetic, willfully ignorant of reality, distracted by the techno-gadgets that run their lives, uninterested in much beyond next week’s meaningless TV episode, and allowing corporate media moguls to form their opinions for them with relentless propaganda. The only thing that will get their attention is an absolute collapse of our economic scheme. Uninformed, unconcerned, intellectually vacant “consumers” may get that in the not too distant future.

The elite have convinced “consumers” to be angry with protestors, immigrants and the inner city poor, ignoring the true culprits; the corrupt banking/war system and mega-corporations. This shows the power of propaganda and intellectual laziness of average Americans. Whose actions have the power to affect your lives?

Americans have chosen mindless consumerism over Citizenship, which requires a person to be actively engaged in community with obligations to current and future generations. Consumerism requires people to embrace debt, worry about what others have, and accumulate stuff.

The disgusting Black Friday show is the ultimate consumerism display. “Consumers” spend senselessly, acting like Pavlov’s dogs lining up for hours to stampede over others and get the deal on a Chinese toaster oven, Vietnamese laptop, or Korean HDTV. They seem unconcerned about going deeper into debt, buying cheap crap made in countries where the corporations sent their jobs.

The prestitutes declare Black Friday successful when millions bought stuff they didn’t need, with money they don’t have, while millions ate their Thanksgiving meals in food shelters. Wal-Mart takes donations to provide thanksgiving dinners to its underpaid employees.

People thinking they’re free, oppose ideas different from what their TV tells them to believe. Our system is designed to control the thoughts and actions of the masses. It’s mostly done subtly, though recently it’s become bolder. It’s essential for the ruling elite to control thinking through media messages and the “educational” system which has steadily deteriorated. Government controlled education teaches our children historical myths, social engineering gibberish and only the bare essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Government creates standardized tests and approved textbooks leaving us with millions of functionally illiterate children that grow into non-critical thinking adults. This is the desired result because if too many were able to ignore the propaganda and think independently, revolution would result. Our ruling elite use their media machine and have begun police state thug tactics to squeeze threats to their power and control because too many are discovering reality.

“American capitalism needed international rivalry, and periodic war, to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor, supplanting the genuine community of interest among the poor that showed itself in sporadic movements”. Howard Zinn

 Craig Dudley