The Company You Keep
November 5th, 2015 | 
Author: The whole notion that Americans are somehow morally superior or righteous in some God given way is one of the fattest loads of crap ever served up.
We are not.
We do adore these handiest and laziest of myths.
We are not possibly any better than the millions our government has murdered in pursuit of imperialistic adventure. How can we stomach ourselves after sending our youngest adults with the common denominator of least potential to commit these atrocities and then ignore them once they return from being murderous pawns in a rigged game of geopolitical brinkmanship? We sloganeer relentlessly about supporting our troops. It’s disgusting. We say it with bumper stickers and memes and yellow ribbons but we never discuss the mental anguish our greed has visited upon these completely clueless innocent soldiers. They come back missing arms and legs. They come back missing scoops of their brains. They come back missing a reason to live because they were ordered to participate in the absolute worst humans are capable of and we can’t wait to lionize them right before we completely blow them off.
We never have to look at them.
We never actually see them.
We cheer lead and wax all jingoistic with the requisite poison dose of nationalism that justifies might being right.
We’re so badass.
We rewrite history books and even textbooks to hide the blood on our hands. Holocaust is a word that Americans know because of WWII, not because of our own systematic genocide of native Americans. We ascribe our very worst behaviors to God’s will and then we pray. That fucks with me. Really hard.
Just last week our hope and change democratic president committed to putting boots on the ground in Syria. A small number. Sure. But after he basically swore he wouldn’t. Five million goddamn soldiers in that region with fat fucking defense budgets and we somehow have to put our kids in another hopeless goddamn mess.
For what?
For profit.
For advantage.
For the bullshit that no one but the 1% cares about.
Again.
And half of us take these assholes seriously. These candidates that preach about our moral and ethical responsibility in a world gone mad that they either made or hope to make or keep making. How can we be so goddamn dumb? It’s completely useless unless you’re stinking rich. America makes war for profit. Exclusively. How many did we kill in Vietnam, Korea, Libya, or Iraq? What’s it gonna take for us to learn this lesson? Shit gets exponentially worse when profits soar.
These wars, this massive amount of death and destruction cannot possibly make the world anything other than worse. It makes the filthy rich even richer and exposes the rest of us as rubes. We haven’t actually won a war since WWII. We haven’t actually declared a war since then. We haven’t actually fought a war since then that didn’t make everything ten times worse.
Seriously.
We have the most devastating military in the history of humankind and that’s our biggest goddamn problem.
We really have to stop being such patsies.
We need to get over ourselves.
ISIS and Al Qaeda are not a threat to you. Not even close to the threat domestic right wing evangelical nut job gun nuts are. America’s most compelling problems are all domestic. All of our worries and troubles are homegrown.
The very best evidence of this is the concerted effort to convince us otherwise.
If we could just shave twenty five percent from our national aspiration to visit misery and death on whomever stands in our way, we could spend it on taking care of most of our problems and people. We would still be, by far, the most powerful military in the history of our species. There would then be the extra added benefit of us being roughly one quarter less giant dickheads on the world stage.
Drinks for my friends.
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WELL SAID, Mr. Douglass! Your points are well made and taken. If you’re ever near my zip code, I’d like to buy you a drink for this one. It hit home and it’s a keeper.
All countries teach and preach nationalism because “They’re Number One!” and they won’t admit their specious need to maintain a narrowed awareness of foreign mindsets. Many proud flag-waving Americans consider empathizing with non-Americans as treason, and foreigners’ familiarity of their own politics and history is both irrelevant and just plain wrong. ‘Their’ history isn’t what we were taught in school. It doesn’t match what our history textbooks said, so by God THEY’re wrong. Wrong about why they entered wars, wrong about past national uprisings and wrong about their whole philosophy.
If only they’d read our books. Then they’d know.
When I lived outside the country while serving in the military in the 70s, there wasn’t a single week pass that I didn’t observe at least one American soldier unknowingly embarrass himself due to his skewed preconceptions. The brass only encouraged this blindness of global superiority. U.S. tourists weren’t any better. We’ve earned the world’s perception of us.
But I do take objection to your description of our soldiers as the “…youngest adults with the common denominator of least potential”. Mr. Douglass, admittedly this does apply to some of our military – particularly during the draft when anti-war sentiment began to eclipse deaf patriotism, when there were no alternatives to serving unless (a) you met very specific, limited preset exceptions, (b) you deemed federal imprisonment a better elective or (c) you were one of those ‘Senator’s sons’ we all sang about. Your statement is insulting to every woman who ever served. All have been volunteers, even while young men were fleeing the country from fear or objection. (Or shitting their pants, like conservative gun nut Ted Nugent.) Maybe I was of “limited potential” then. After all, college was beyond my financial grasp and the GI bill did help me through school later. But even now decades later, I don’t consider many of them having “limited potential”. No more so than the general public when comparing the same ages, skills and experience. The military is no longer a judicial alternative to serving time in jail – particularly when good-paying, full-time jobs remain elusive and a decent education requires financing years of your future.
Or maybe it’s just my esprit-de-corps that’s riled.
Republicans’ legislation stands as evidence confirming their belief that the only troops they’re willing to support are the ones who came home in a box. It’s the same as the education and pollution standards they’re slashing with titles that are the opposite. It’s just like their so very lofty “pro-life” positions that end abruptly at childbirth and exclude all women and children. These are pro-birth, not pro-life.
The amount the U.S. spends to maintain our social ‘safety nets’ is humiliating. Less than one percent of our annual budget. More progressive nations would consider this a human rights violation. Here in the U.S., Republicans remain outraged these programs still exist, even though they’re needed and used by many of our active duty and retired military, also known as ‘lazy slackers who refuse to work’.
“ISIS and Al Qaeda are not a threat to you.” You’re damned right about that, Mr. Douglass! War – what is it good for? It’s good for religious extremists’ businesses and churches. It’s awesome for weapons manufacturers and the NRA, which subsequently increases business for the manufacturers of anti-anxiety meds, pharmacies, medical staff and hospital emergency rooms. It’s also good for companies that distribute alarm security and computer and public/private monitoring hard- and software. But mostly it’s good for fear-mongering political whores in Congress, and the corporate private sector who privately auction off lucrative government contracts to war profiteering pals in their own districts in exchange for rewards like hefty campaign contributions and ‘special favors’. It’s a slick way of converting taxpayers’ money (yours and mine) into theirs. And it’s a whole lot easier to pull off now, easier to legally defend to any investigators and a lot harder to trace since House Republicans passed legislation over the past year to ensure its growth. Meanwhile the Federal Election Commission (FEC) says they don’t have the time to investigate anybody. Green light, go!
But it’s not good for our young people. It’s mutilation and death for them. The Republican cost of doing business.
The only people who believe Americans are somehow superior are Americans with their heads firmly embedded up their own asses. Anyone who lives in the real world certainly knows better. Well said, Michael and on point as always.
I think this song sums it up for me:
https://youtu.be/TWyBD49W7a0
I meant this one:
https://youtu.be/3uocbVICemc
Michael, your outrage is well warranted.
We finally reined in the Vietnam war with our holy righteous outrage, though they, the Nixons and Kissingers would fain have continued it. We need that outrage today.
The question remains, “will we ever” or “can we ever so shame them with plain, blatant facts, that they will ‘lie down and be good’?” Will our outrage ever reach its proper level? Will the fools of this nation ever abandon their foolishness?
Will they ever get wise? Will they ever put two and two together and realize that al Qaida, and its daughters al Nusra, al Qaida in the Maghreb, ISIS, and all the others are only rag-tag CIA-created bands of psychopaths just like Reagan’s Contras, and that the CIA is not the defender of home and hearth but the enforcer of Wall Street’s robbery of the whole world?
What sort of a mental crisis, a wrenching, a catastrophe would that amount to for them?
Whatever it is, that’s the only shock therapy worth prescribing for this bunch of sickos.
As ALWAYS “SPOT ON” Mr. Douglas!
War is simply a tool for a few to make massive gains, while our young soldiers sacrifice EVERYTHING!
To say it isn’t a crime really pisses me off!
No more flippen Wars you idiots in DC ~
Capeesh?
Perfect! Nothing else to add EXCEPT U find the whole idea of “AMERICAN exceptionalism” a repugnant, arrogant and completely racist/ bigoted ideal.
Sorry … “I” not “U”. Phone keyboard and very small view. ????
ewwwwwwww….welllll said Michael Wade and I’m sowwy to be kinda trite when I say it is soooo friggin’trite that little mechanical way people say Thank You For Your Service. No harm meant towards the soldiers, but it’s an empty phrase that sounds like that wordsmith, Frank Luntz pulled out of his rump. It’s almost like I can hear them saying, better you than me. It is sooo ghoulish that this country values profits over lives. If you really want to thank a service person, let’s stand up collectively to the greedy-guts that unnecessarily puts these men and women in harms way!
Beginning with WW I — What country did we dominate — WW II Would we be living under Hitler or Hirohito had we not joined the conflict — Korea South Korea would be ruled by (what’s his name) of North Korea but for our intervention — Viet Nam destroyed by those of you who think protection of the masses is sinful. kNow you want no resistance to the muslum ideology and expect them to leave you to your self righteous attitude? They TELL you they will rule the world, just like Hitler and Hirohito–get a life
Once again Mike you are right on target! Bravo sir!
Keep up the great insights, and first person story telling …??????????????????