cvictorg
New Member
Dear Lord, we gather before you now to remember the dead of all America's wars, and beseech you to fill the hearts of our rulers never to send any other Americans off to fight and die in the same senselessness that characterized virtually all of our wars.
The men whom we memorialize today died believing that they were fighting - and killing - in the cause of protecting our people and our nation. But, dear Lord, they were for the most part sadly mistaken, for most of our wars have been fought not to defend our nation against foreign invasion and subsequent rule by outsiders; rather, they were instigated at the behest of a government seeking to extend its powers and rally the people to it, and by powerful interests allied to that government. To be sure, these governments and powers always cloaked their interests in starting these wars in the rhetoric of national defense, or "making the world safe for democracy", or stopping the evils of Nazism and Communism, although strangely they didn't refrain from actions like allying with Stalin or making total war on fellow Americans of the South.
The men who fought and died did so for us, their brothers and sisters, their parents and children, or so they thought. And we brothers and sisters, parents and children, rallied behind them. But in almost every war that the United States has fought, the killing and dying, at least of Americans, was avoidable. The Revolutionary War began over irritants that not only would sound trivial today, but which our own government now visits upon us. The Civil War resulted in a carnage of both attackers and defenders alike, all because the defenders did not wish to be governed from Washington, D.C. The World Wars, Korea, Vietnam: none of these had much to do with defending the U.S. and its people from attack. And, dear lord, let us not even mention the travesties of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The one war that seems to have resulted in lasting benefit to these United States, the Mexican War, is the one that is most deplored as an act of imperialism on our part, so perverted have our notions of our best interests become. (And our casualties were few!)
And let us not neglect to mention that our government neglects to stop a real invasion across our borders, occurring even now.
Protect us from our government, and save us from having to commemorate any more Americans dead in war. Defend us from the progressives, the liberals, the neoconservatives and, yes, even the conservatives, who all lobby the government to make war for their pet causes. And finally, open the eyes of our fellow Americans, so that they may understand the great injustice that has been and continues to be done to them.
The men whom we memorialize today died believing that they were fighting - and killing - in the cause of protecting our people and our nation. But, dear Lord, they were for the most part sadly mistaken, for most of our wars have been fought not to defend our nation against foreign invasion and subsequent rule by outsiders; rather, they were instigated at the behest of a government seeking to extend its powers and rally the people to it, and by powerful interests allied to that government. To be sure, these governments and powers always cloaked their interests in starting these wars in the rhetoric of national defense, or "making the world safe for democracy", or stopping the evils of Nazism and Communism, although strangely they didn't refrain from actions like allying with Stalin or making total war on fellow Americans of the South.
The men who fought and died did so for us, their brothers and sisters, their parents and children, or so they thought. And we brothers and sisters, parents and children, rallied behind them. But in almost every war that the United States has fought, the killing and dying, at least of Americans, was avoidable. The Revolutionary War began over irritants that not only would sound trivial today, but which our own government now visits upon us. The Civil War resulted in a carnage of both attackers and defenders alike, all because the defenders did not wish to be governed from Washington, D.C. The World Wars, Korea, Vietnam: none of these had much to do with defending the U.S. and its people from attack. And, dear lord, let us not even mention the travesties of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The one war that seems to have resulted in lasting benefit to these United States, the Mexican War, is the one that is most deplored as an act of imperialism on our part, so perverted have our notions of our best interests become. (And our casualties were few!)
And let us not neglect to mention that our government neglects to stop a real invasion across our borders, occurring even now.
Protect us from our government, and save us from having to commemorate any more Americans dead in war. Defend us from the progressives, the liberals, the neoconservatives and, yes, even the conservatives, who all lobby the government to make war for their pet causes. And finally, open the eyes of our fellow Americans, so that they may understand the great injustice that has been and continues to be done to them.
