The Marine Corps is 232 years old. The Army and Navy and Coast Guard have also served this nation for several centuries, yet the Air Force is not much older than I am, relatively speaking.
Millions of U.S. citizens (and non-citizens) have worn the uniform of one or the other after hearing the calling to serve (some of us at the point of a gun, but that's irrelevant when the balloon goes up). From cooks to fighter pilots, secretaries to snake eaters, they did what they felt was necessary to protect this nation. In peacetime and war, they were ready for the call. Many performed their service without threat from outside, without fear of having to make the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. Others made (and keep making) that sacrifice not long after they enter the service of the nation.
Over the years, veterans have been held in reverence yet they've also been treated with disdain. At times like the ones we're living through now, the symbolism vets embody has been elevated to near god-like status. The powers-that-be however, only see those serving, let alone those who've served previously, as numbers on a ledger. Veterans today are only exalted when they are helping a politician make a point or to curry favor with a constituency. "Support the Troops" has become nothing more than a cynical catchphrase.
To casually commit these dedicated souls to the furtherance of greed and imperialism is unconscionable. Our armed services, and the people who staff them, are here for the defense of this country, not as a conquering and occupying army in league with the Roman Legions. The United States was supposed to have given up its imperial ambitions over a century ago, yet today our military occupies a foreign nation that did not threaten, let alone attack us. They are being used as targets for an insurgency instead of guardians of our civil liberties against foreign invaders.
Today, we are in the process of supplanting our military with a private army of mercenaries. Those in charge must realize the difficulty of forcing those who serve this nation honorably to follow the illegal orders of an illegitimate regime. The value of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines is being diminished by those who will do anything for a dollar. By those who will kill for profit and whose allegiances are determined by the highest bidder.
If we are to honor our veterans on this day, this day on which one of the most horrific wars in human history ended, we must show them the proper respect. We must act (not say but act) as if every veteran's life is sacred. That because they are willing to lay down their lives for our freedoms doesn't mean those lives should be squandered frivolously. The lives of infantrymen are no less valuable than those of the flag officers who command them. They are not pawns, to be moved on a board just because one has the power to. They are here to defend us. They are here to assure the United States remains a sovereign, democratic nation.
If we are to honor our veterans this day, they should come home from Iraq yesterday. For us to truly honor our veterans, we should give proper care to those who've left parts of their body and mind on the battlefield after they come home. For us to pay them proper respect, we should put the little flags away and actually do something to help those who have given more than this country could ever repay. For us to give this veteran some peace when he thinks of his brothers and sisters who have fought and died, who have lost their minds, who sit in VA hospitals waiting for the end to finally come, we must hold those who use our veterans to enhance their ego and wealth accountable.
On this Veterans Day, this veteran demands the illegitimate regime at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue be removed, arrested, and brought to trial. Nothing else will suffice in the attempt to wash the blood of Iraq from our hands. Until we return to the America I and millions of other vets swore to defend, the souls who fought and died will not rest easy. It is time to put an end to this insult and sacrilege and it's time for our military to return to the job they were meant to do.
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