HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

(The Night Before The 4^th. Edward Cody Burnett)

(CNBC, Aljazeera, Creative Commons, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, a federal holiday that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. In American the day is associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, concerts and baseball games.

 

Independence day is also a day, when if it falls during the week like this one, that business owners grudgingly accept it because they have no choice, because it’s usually a day that is a paid holiday, costing hundreds of millions of dollars across the land, and the day after, or for that matter, the rest of a work week is usually blown off by workers for obvious reasons, excessive alcohol consumption, and a general attitude of a lethargic feeling for however many working days are left until the week-end.

 

For several years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans did seem to realize that there needed to be renewed awareness about the activity that was going on around the world. The Federal Government took advantage of this wave of patriotic feelings and took freedom rights away, and installed by far the biggest bureaucratic department in the history of the country, Homeland Security.

 

And of course we see visits by political figures in whatever theater of military activity that we have going on, this year it’s Afghanistan, and the old war horse, Senior Republican Senator, John McCain, and what seems like his annual visit to our troops. Accompanying McCain on this trip is one of my favorite Republicans, Senator Lindsey Graham.

 

McCain’s message, the exact same as it was last year, the year before that, and the same message as eight years ago. “Stay the course,” and that strategic partnerships were very important to success. Even though relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai have been strained lately, talks need to proceed between the U.S. Afghanistan and other nations regarding troop strengths after 2014. Hum…..wouldn’t that be the 14^th. year of U.S. and (other nations) occupying the country, what’s to talk about…..let’s get the hell out!

 

THE WAR EFFORT

Many in Congress on Capitol Hill have expressed dismay and disapproval of the slow process that the Obama administration seems to be taking with the draw-down of military presence in Afghanistan, yet agree strongly with the U.S. war effort. “Huh, how can that be,” you’re either pregnant, or you’re not, there is no middle ground.

 

Our war effort in Afghanistan, and the several other hot spots around the world that concern us all do have one thread in common, it’s the practice of democratic empire building that just a decade ago we said we weren’t doing!

 

Have you ever thought about how American history, as it is being played out right now resembles a futuristic movie with a ‘B’ type actors. Worse, whenever somebody refers too or I read about Homeland Security, I immediately think of Nazi Germany and 1942.

 

Our military presence around the world is our foreign policy, and as opposed to what some people think or say, the U.S. foreign policy is not a spur of the moment issue. Our foreign policy has been thought out, and has been discussed, and implemented in a gradual manner.

Our attitudes towards other nations seems to be imbedded in our minds, imbedded from years of implants from all sources of media, and educational institutions, from grade school on up to pre, and post graduate educations.

 

There are at least 35 private college-prep military schools, some of which receive military aid, 21 public schools that feature a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, also partly funded by the United States Department of Defense. And I didn’t know that the United States also boasts five military junior colleges, participating in the Army’s two-year Early Commissioning Program, a program which qualifies students to earn a commission as a Second Lieutenant after only two years of college.

 

There also are state-supported maritime colleges and universities, (6) in all, where students at these academies are organized as military academy cadets, and graduate with appropriate licenses from the U.S. Coast Guard, or U.S. Merchant Marine.

 

There also are 5 Senior Military Colleges and 5 Federal Service Academies where cadets, (these young men and women) are no-longer regarded as students, can get specialized training in all sorts of military activity, training and are put onto the fast track in achieving military rank in an advanced program.

 

I am proud to be an American, I revel in the abilities that I have, and feel blessed to be a citizen in a country that has been a nation of progressive, caring and benevolent people. But when I hear about some old fart praising the dogs of war, I get a huge case of the red-ass. Senator McCain was a prisoner of war for something like five years…..and yet he talks about the dogs of war, and how we need to stay the course, “sir you jest.”

 

As a people we need to realize who we are, what we have done, and where we’ve came from…..some pretty darned good stock is mingled together to form how we are and what we can be…..again.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!