FODDER FOR THE GRIST MILL!

FODDER FOR THE GRIST MILL!

(Nan Levinson/Frazer Chronicle)

War is hell.....this statement has to be true, I've read it, actually heard people say it, and seen the term in all sorts of war movies. Every man or woman who goes off to war, returns home injured, either physically or mentally, it's just a fact of the nasty business of war.

We've been at the business of war for over 10 years in God only knows how many fronts, in how many countries and backwater piss stops. The United States no longer has a conscription military force, it's all volunteer. In the old days, every male had to register for compulsory military service when he turned 18. It meant that you had finally reached the age of majority.....with regards to sacrificing your life for the preservation of the country.

Today military pay is better, the benefits are better and the military has all sorts of enticement programs to "sign up," you have to have inducements for an all volunteer military. And then of course there is after military service advantages, schooling, follow-up medical care....."Kind of."

Ten years ago the average military age was at an all time high, around 28, but today, as the retention rate plummets, the average age of a G.I. is approaching the early 20's. It's getting harder and harder for the federal government and the Pentagon to sell the wars in the Middle East.

I started to ask why we need war in our society many years ago, back in the late 1960’s; I just couldn't grasp what the hell the deal was. Why were Americans dying in some foreign land every few days? For what purpose did their deaths serve?

It has taken years for me to understand what is going on in our world, and I yet do not fully understand. Why would men be so completely committed to a country, to ideals, to a way of life and to political beliefs?

THUNDERSTRUCK:

It was really like a "bolt of lightning" hit me, the realization was so counter to what I had been taught, to how I had been living my life. There actually were people "out there" that wanted to continue war on a perpetual basis, some of these jokers never wanted war to be over, they wanted a state of readiness at all times, no matter the cost.

I begin to read, watch and listen, and boy did I learn.....what I learned was a very disturbing and depressing reality of what my country was up. Profiteering on a massive scale, whole areas of the U.S. were under the political, economic and patriotic thumb-nail of those people who wanted war.

We were and are being fed such a load of disinformation by our political leaders that it's a wonder we function as a nation, a land of laws, and a democracy. War has become a way of life for many in the United States, from the actual soldier to a trailer maker in northern Wisconsin, to the military engine rejuvenation shop in Peru, Illinois.

These are small businesses with less than a hundred employees, but they none the less are as dependent on foreign wars as the Pentagon, Pratt & Whitney, or Boeing. Military governmental contracts fuel our economy, no matter the shape it's in.

I was in the military, luckily I did all my "combating" in the taverns of Germany, I never shot anybody, never put a knife to the throat of an "enemy," and for damn sure never tortured a captive man. I'll never forget the Army saying, when I was doing double time around my barracks, holding my weapon in front of me reciting, "This is my weapon, not a gun, a weapon’s for shooting, (my gun is for fun)."

Learning the "ways of America" has been a painstaking process for me, my father, although never in the military had much respect for the men of the military. Dad didn't even like M.A.S.H, said it defamed soldiers and the efforts of the United States during the Korean War. I personally thought the show was funny and was a metaphor about all wars, and how little good came from them.

THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM:

The problem I have with war, war for any reason, and war "no matter the cost," is that war never really settles much of anything. We have an all volunteer armed forces, are military is highly technical, so technical that we can shoot a flea off a baboon's ass at a thousand yards, trouble is, baboons don't have weapons, don't have armies and don't make wars.

Then there's the human degradation, mentally and physically, nobody comes away from a war zone without some form of lingering malady, a nervous tick, indigestion, heartburn, or a rage within. War is a nasty business, not as nasty as 50 or 60 years ago, but still nasty.....nonetheless.

What happens when "our" soldiers come home from the war, what happens to the wives that are left here, state-side, while their husbands or wives are off fighting the good fight? Divorce rates are up, unemployment tends to be wide-spread when soldiers come home, medical help, "mental wiseness" lags way behind, and there is a general decaying of the family circle.

Feeling sorry for our troops does no good, it's really not an option, and how can my "feeling" sorry for a U.S. soldier do anything for drinking, drug use, depression or destitution. Soldiers and their loved ones have problems that I can't even begin to understand, they all need professional help.

Who pays for that help, who follows up on problem men or women, and what in hell are we, "as a society" supposed to do with our military personnel. It's obvious that, as a country we can't continue to pay for the care that they need.

Our soldiers are all volunteer and are supposed to put up with whatever comes their way, after all, they signed up on a volunteer basis. However, in the final analysis, what does it mean to a human being when he knows that he is responsible for the deaths of dozens of men, women and children. I don't know.....do you?

Fodder for the grist mill, when will we finally decide to stop our downward spiral towards oblivion and tell these war mongers "the jigs up?"