The Glory of War

The annual glorification of D Day, and the Saving of Europe by America has just passed. It's been almost 70 years, but Americans are still taught that fighting the Nazis justifies all that has come since then.
As a child, I was taught the party line about D Day. It was a big surprise, the Nazis were winning until the US invaded, we were giant heroes and deserved everlasting worship.

Imagaine my surprise when I read Anne Frank's Diary and she expressed impatience for the US to come to Europe's defense.

What? How could a teenager locked in an attic know about the Top Secret D Day plans?

I asked my Dad. He told me that FDR had promised Stalin in 194l, when the US declared war on Germany, that the US would open a second front to fight the Germans. But, we didn't. Not until 2 1/2 years later, when the USSR had managed to push the Germans back out of their country, and were pursuing them through the other occupied terrorities. (In the meantime, losing 20,000,000 people and undergoing destruction, starvation, rape and torture). Harry Truman, on the floor on the Senate, openly stated the US position - let the Germans and Russians kill as many of each other as possible, and then the US would move in.

Too late for Anne Frank, and millions of others.

My mom's friend participated in the invasion. He told her that he jumped in the water, made it to shore, and then hid until it was over. He didn't fight or kill anyone. In the book, "On Killing" by Lt. Col Dave Grossman, he points out that studies showed that only 15% to 20% of rifleman in the US military ever used their weapons in WW2.

This, of course, is a problem for the ruling class, which needs willing killers to perform their conquests.

The book was about how the US has managed to up the rate of killers in the military, with psychological manipulation and training, as well as the glorification of murder and the military throughout the US.

One of my friends was released from the military last week and announced it on Facebook. Everyone who commented ritually thanked him for his service. This genuflection has been drilled into the US public since Vietnam, and is as automatic as blessing someone when they sneeze. You are not allowed to talk to a soldier without repeating the mantra.

While I was running for Congress, I was on a talk show, and some irate soldier called to complain about my peace views and also to complain about how the military was being downsized and soldiers were having their pay cut.

I pointed out that the ruling class is turning to mechanized warfare, including robots and drones, and that they don't need actual unreliable human beings as much as they used to. I said that the rest of American workers had already been downsized and replaced by robots, so now it was his turn. "Welcome to the rest of America", I said, with not much sympathy.

The radio host said "Thank you for your service" before he disconnected the line.