Never Again

So, I’m going to get into a lot of trouble for this one, or maybe I won’t it probably depends on who reads this.

One of the easiest ways to tell which is the house I’m living in now is that on the upper front balcony someone has put up a giant yellow “ribbon” which says “Support our Troops” on it.  This phrase has always bugged me, and not just coming from a Mennonite background.  The real reason it bugs me can be summarized up in a single question, “what does that even mean?”

I’ve always found it weird how someone can say that they oppose the government’s decisions, and how they think it’s wrong for the armed forces to be doing whatever it is they’re doing, but to then immediately say they support the troops.  Thinking about it now (as I write this I have no idea what I’m going to say, I’m just making it up as I go along) I guess it kind of reminds me of the unconditional love a parent has for their children, that or the girl who keeps going back to her abusive boyfriend.  The idea that no matter what they do wrong it doesn’t matter, they’re still loved.

The justification these people who blindly want to support our troops use is that “they’re fighting for our freedoms.”  Even when you disagree with the fighting they’re doing, even if the battles being fought seem to only be about international posturing, or resources or interests of the rich and powerful.  Somehow, they’re still fighting for our freedoms.  Now, you may say that their intentions for signing up in the first place were there, and that it was the government’s fault for using the forces for wrong, but I ask you this.  Canada has had troops in Afghanistan since 2001, as has the US, who also had troops in Iraq from 2003 until earlier this year.  In that time, anyone signing up has known that they could be asked to go and participate in these conflicts.  What that says to me, is that anyone who’s signed up since these wars started is most definitely not fighting for our freedoms, and they knew that going into it too.

Why sign up then?  I would suspect that in most cases it’s because finding jobs can be hard, or stressful, especially if you were the type who couldn’t even get through highschool.  This however is an easy to get job, where there always seems to be positions open.  Maybe they’re just poor and want a free post-secondary education.  Perhaps some are out of touch with current events enough to think that what they are doing will be to protect us.  The only catch to all of these is that you need to be willing to go out and kill people (and I bet there have been some people who have joined for that reason too, but I wouldn’t think very many), and to accept that fact that you could be killed too.

If you want to “support our troops” I suppose that means you’re for these things, the decent paying jobs and the free education.  The question I have is this, why is it that our society doesn’t think these are things that should be given to people, unless they agree to go kill other people (unless you’re name is Karla Homolka, at which point society doesn’t think you should get free education for killing people).  why not support the troops before they become troops, or support them so they don’t need to become troops.

Right now, if you’re still reading this, and enraged that so far I’ve compared members of the armed forces to abusive boyfriends, psychopaths, and people without a proper grip on reality, then you’re probably doubly outraged that I’ve chosen to do so on the 11th of November.  I’ve seen plenty of comments on the internet regarding this, the one day of the year for veterans, that it’s supposed to not be about politics and instead about remembering the people who sacrificed themselves in the name of their country (presumably for future generations).  The thing about that is that this is wrong.  Who remembers hearing the phrases “never again” and “war is hell” especially at this time of year.  That’s what we need to be remembering.  The goal isn’t to idolize people who died during the wars, otherwise, we’re going to have a new generation who thinks it’s noble to go off and do it again so they can then be remembered the same way.  That actually sounds to me to be kind of familiar to conditions that led up to the first world war.  Does anyone else think it’s kinda funny that something called “the war to end all wars” is only helping to make war more acceptable (not to mention being a part of a chain of events that led to the conditions allowing Hitler to rise to power)?  No, of course it’s not funny, it’s war, millions of people died, and they did so for no real purpose, there’s nothing funny about it, just despicable and regrettable.

In case you want more examples of these men you call heroes make pretty bad role models here’s some other things to consider:

During the lead-up to the second world war, many Jews tried to leave Germany because of the persecution.  However, before 1945 antisemitism was perfectly reasonable to western society, and the attempted refuges weren’t allowed entry into other countries and they were then forced to go back to Germany, possibly to their deaths.

If you look at old propaganda posters from the time frame you’ll note that they don’t cover the treatment of Jews, there’s really two reasons for that.  First like I mentioned above, nobody really cared, and second nobody knew what was happening.  The men signing up weren’t doing it to save the Jews, they were doing it because they were told to, please stop assigning this extra level of fighting for the oppressed in the way you remember them, they weren’t.  As far as anyone here knew European Jews were being treated the same as North American people of Japanese decent.  If for some reason you don’t want to believe this, then that means the countries (including this one) I mentioned above who turned away immigrants knowingly sent them to their deaths.

It’s about time to wrap this up, but really here’s what I want to say.  If you’re taking the time today, or any day to remember the soldiers who died in really any way, ask yourself this, what was the difference between them and the men they were killing.  Both had families who cared for them (unless those families were blown apart like the massive number of other civilian deaths brought on by war).  Both were following orders, and both were hating the other for no real reason other than someone else told them to.  Remember those civilian deaths on either side, and just remember that everything about it was wrong.  Use this as a chance to remember what a senseless waste it is, and that our goal really should be “Never Again.”