A plea for reason and peace on Veterans' Day

Y'know, some people think I'm some kind of freak 'cause I don't want to have kids. It doesn't seem too freaky to me.

Y'ever notice, in the town green, or in front of city hall or whatever... there's usually at least one memorial. What do you figure the memorial is dedicated to? Acts of charity? Promotion of peace through rational discussion? People who made the honor roll at the local high school?

Naw... people who died in wars. That's pretty much it.

Don't get me wrong. It sucks that people die in wars. It's a real shame. I'm sure most of them were decent people who believed they were doing the right thing.

By erecting memorials to war, we glorify it.

I looked it up. In the 39 years of my life, there was only one year that the United States wasn't directly involved in some overt military action or another, to say nothing of covert actions.

Y'know when the last time any nation took a directly offensive posture against US territory was? Cuban Missile Crisis. 1962. And that was in response to the Bay of Pigs... a US-backed invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cuban exiles trained and equipped by the CIA.

They call the standing military establishment in this country the Department of Defense.

Now a generally accepted definition of Defense is: The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury.

In the last 39 years, the only time I know of when anybody directly Attacked, Endagered or Injured the United States was September 11, 2001, and the Department of Defense was remarkably ineffective then.

They couldn't even defend their own headquarters, a building designed to be supremely defensible.

A building situated in the most secure airspace on the surface of the planet.

They seem to do a fine job of flattening the mud huts of impoverished people who tan easily on the other side of the globe. Can't seem to mind the store at home.

Seems to me priorities are a little out of whack.

People in the government seem to spend a significant portion of their time talking about promoting peace throughout the world. What have they DONE to promote peace?

In the last 39 years we've been militarily involved in 50 countries.

We've militarily "visited" Iraq 5 times. Liberia and the Persian Gulf 4 times. Sierra Leone, Libya and Lebanon 3 times.

We've meddled in Zaire, Yemen, Somalia, The Phillippines, Panama, Honduras, Cambodia, Bolivia and Afghanistan twice, each.

... and 35 other countries, once each.

We've been busy.

Instead of meddling in the affairs of people we don't understand in countries our President can't locate on a map, don't you think it would be better for the well-being of the American people as a whole to see to the feeding, housing, clothing, education and healthcare of every last American before we go trapsing across the ocean or through the sky to bring our "help" to people who don't want it?

The government showed its true colors with Hurricane Katrina, I think... Cities and towns completely destroyed; millions homeless, thousands dead; the regional economy eviscerated; Basic services like police and fire protection gone or ineffective because of the disruption to the infrastructure. Delays of months and years in reconstruction due to bureaucratic ineptitude, insufficient funding and commercial predation.

Within a month of 9/11, we were bombing the Afgahnis "back to the stone age"... and the big joke was that the Afgahanis saw it as an "upgrade". That's a month to investigate, find the culprits, prepare the forces, supply lines, and equipment, stage it all in nearby cooperating countries and finally begin the bombing.

Now, granted, we still haven't found Osama... But that's OK, because it's really about Saddam... oh.. wait...

I guess we have time, now, to look for Osama, huh?

Well, anyway....

I guess the difference between Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 is that Katrina was an ACT of god, while 9/11 resulted from people acting ON BEHALF OF god. ... and we can't have that... unless they're armed anti-choice loonies parading in front of an abortion clinic waiting for the head baby-mangler to show up.... so they can KILL him... in the name of god.

There really are only two choices: Peace or Conflict. Peace between two entities requires they both behave peacefully. Someone has to take the initiative. Someone has to lead by example. Better it be us, I think.

We as a people cannot claim the moral high-ground from a position of deceit. The justification for invading Iraq has been throughly debunked. Now we're stuck with a flaming bag of dog poo on our doorstep that we, really, put there ourselves for no good reason. Come to think of it, is there ever a good reason to put a flaming bag of poo on your own doorstep?

Any recovering addict or alcoholic will tell you you can't help someone who doesn't want your help. If the bulk of Iraqis REALLY wanted us there, THEY'D quell the insurgency, through sticks and rocks and overwhelming numbers... or though reasoned dialog, to make it safe for us to help them peacefully.

That's the big reason I don't want to have kids. I don't see any hope for peace among people in this world.

Prove me wrong.