Militarism is a lying thing — conclusions drawn by U.S. Army Major — Danny Sjursen

23 February 2018

Danny Sjursen's conclusions regarding militarism — are worth a ponder

At least so, for those with still functioning moral brains:

[T]he war in Iraq was built on lies and waged without caution . . . American arrogance fractured a fragile society and unleashed a sectarian civil war that’s proved impossible to bottle back up.

[A]ll my poor boys really accomplished in Afghanistan was to secure one square kilometer of land for one short year.

[F]oreign armies, by their very nature, generate unrest. That American deployments from West Africa to South Asia increased rather than stifled terror acts and terror groups across the region.

[E]mpire, always . . . ultimately comes home as our militarized domestic police patrol their beats like occupied territory . . . . the real terrorism is on our streets, in our schools and lurking among us . . . .

[U]ltimately, violence begets violence . . . .

On the hard days I envy the true believers . . . . they’re still out there, filling the ranks—from green lieutenants to grizzled generals.

How I miss the simplicity and serenity of blind patriotism and jingoistic nationalism.

Sjursen's is not just idle chatter

Sjursen, a West Pointer, has almost 17 years in. Including two wars and twelve dead troops.

I have been (not-too-loosely) associated with the American military for more than 23 years. What's struck me during this period is how the United States changed itself from an occasionally intrusive foreign presence to a perpetually deadly and always meddling one. As Nick Turse has pointed out, U.S. troops are now in 70 percent of the planet's countries.

The moral? — Propagandized violence clouds judgment and generates a malevolently paranoid society

The only justification for American imperialism today — and a morally devoid utilitarian one at that — is the profit it generates for the many devils among us.

There is nothing about the United States that would appeal, even marginally, to moral philosophers from Jesus through Buddha. That this is probably the case with any institution (or group of institutions) is beside the point. The issue is that a culture's people should be aware of the trait and guard against it.

Demonstrably incorporating evil into institutions is something to ponder, given our self-serving penchant for believing that we are God's Jesus crew. In that delusional regard, deadly hypocrisy defines the USA better than any other phrase.

With a handful of other contemporary Americans, I doubt that the admirable elements of our culture are going to survive the current onslaught of socially accepted turpitude. And I agree with those who hypothesize that the United States' violence-infatuated culture spawns masses of dead school children.

I have real trouble, even in secular fashion, coming up with reasons that justify excesses of paranoid, self-defeating national security, as well as serial domestic gun butchery. We have allowed those who profit from dealing death and unrest to make us similar to them. Protest, it seems to me, is the only moral place to be.

This post-massacre week, I found Florida kids' angry, anti-murder voices appealing. See here, for example. At least some people in our rotting social fabric have societally defensible values. With columnist Leonard Pitts, I wish them Godspeed.

PeteFree.com

Militarism is a lying thing — conclusions drawn by U.S. Army Major — Danny Sjursen