A Few Ugly Truths about the Death State and Its Supporters

Last November, in "On Veterans Day: Fuck that Shit," I excerpted a Laurence Vance article. In part, Vance wrote:

What is there to thank our soldiers for? They are not defending our freedoms. They are not keeping us safe from our enemies. They are not protecting us from terrorists. They are not guaranteeing our First Amendment rights. They are not defending U.S. borders. They are not guarding U.S. shores. They are not patrolling U.S. coasts. They are not enforcing no-fly zones over U.S. skies. They are not fighting "over there" so we don’t have to fight "over here." They are not avenging 9/11. They are not safeguarding the American way of life. Oh, and they are not ensuring that I have the liberty to write what I do about the military.

What, then, should we thank our soldiers for? Should we thank them for fighting an unconstitutional war, an unscriptural war, an immoral war, an offensive war, an unjust war, or a senseless war? Should we thank our veterans for helping to carry out an aggressive, reckless, belligerent, and interventionist foreign policy? Should we thank the military for sucking $1 trillion out of the federal budget?

But, some will say, these soldiers are just doing their jobs. They can’t help it if the U.S. military sends them to fight in an unjust war in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are just following orders. They didn’t enlist in the military to kill people.

What would any sane man think about a doctor who takes a job at a hospital knowing that the hospital instructs its doctors to euthanize old and sickly patients – and then says he was just doing his job, following orders, and didn’t take the job to kill people?

Why are soldiers treated so differently? Why do they get a pass on committing or supporting those who commit murder and mayhem?

If you consult my full essay, as well as the earlier "No, I Do Not Support 'The Troops,'" you will understand the argument that leads to this unavoidable conclusion:

There exists no legitimate, healthy reason for any person to join the United States military today. None.

As explained in the earlier articles, the U.S. military is not used now for any defensive purpose whatsoever. To the contrary, the U.S. military is used solely to advance the ruling class's obsessive, deeply disturbed dedication to global American hegemony.

In pursuit of that goal, the U.S. military will repeatedly and necessarily murder a vast number of entirely innocent civilians. Such murders are not the regrettable byproduct of a "well-intentioned" policy, and they are not "collateral damage" which cannot be avoided. The murders -- including the murders which occur daily in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries, now including Libya -- are an integral, indispensable element in the plan for control and domination.

When a person joins the U.S. military, she or he voluntarily joins an organization which regularly and methodically murders defenseless, innocent civilians -- women, men, children and even babies. If that is what you sign up for, that is what you want to do.

None of this is secret, specialized knowledge, available only to "experts" or to those who study an arcane subject for decades. No, this information blares from numerous media sources many times a day. This information is as common as dirt. If you don't understand it, you don't want to understand it.

If you join the U.S. military, you want to be a murderer and/or you want to support murderers. If that describes you, I'll see you in hell someday soon.

Given these indisputable truths, this story is not in the least surprising:

Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.

Senior officials at Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.

They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year.

...

The case has already created shock around the world, particularly with the revelations that the men cut "trophies" from the bodies of the people they killed.

An investigation by Der Spiegel has unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the men.

The magazine, which is planning to publish only three images, said that in addition to the crimes the men were on trial for there are "also entire collections of pictures of other victims that some of the defendants were keeping".

The US military has strived to keep the pictures out of the public domain fearing it could inflame feelings at a time when anti-Americanism in Afghanistan is already running high.

In a statement, the army said it apologised for the distress caused by photographs "depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States".

The army's "apology" is standard-issue propaganda for any bloody and barbarian regime. These actions are not "contrary to the standards and values of the United States": they perfectly embody "the standards and values of the United States."

Many supporters of the Death State will seek escape from my argument by claiming that this "kill team" was made up of obviously sick sadists, and that it cannot be credibly claimed that everyone who joins the military is a sick sadist of that kind.

But I didn't say that everyone who joins the military is a disgusting sadist. What I said, and what I repeat, is that everyone who joins the U.S. military today wants to be a murderer and/or wants to support murderers. So you're not a nauseating sadist. You're simply a murderer who murders women, men, children and babies "cleanly," or you want to support such murderers. What is it you're arguing exactly? That a murderer who kills "cleanly," without an additional element of gratuitous sadism, belongs to a superior moral category?

I'll still see you in hell, motherfucker.

I'll add a few more ugly truths, concerning those who supported Obama believing that he represented some kind of important change from the Bush policies they claimed to detest so profoundly. First, your support of Obama represented a confession of comprehensive ignorance about politics and political systems, and how those systems develop and operate. Once again, the truth about Obama and the policies he would follow was not a secret that required special knowledge to decode. Some of us were screaming the truth about Obama repeatedly throughout 2007 and 2008. Almost everyone ignored us. Here's an article I wrote about Obama's foreign policy (and Hillary Clinton's) from May 2007. Here's an article about Obama more generally from May 2008, which included this:

Even if we assume that Obama genuinely wishes to alter our political system, the critical point is unchanged: one individual cannot do it. It is folly to believe otherwise. More bluntly: it is deeply, profoundly stupid. And the truth is very different from this idiotic fantasy: Obama is the perfect embodiment of the system as it now exists. He will challenge it on no issue of importance. To the contrary, he will advance the goals of the ruling class and ensure that the powerful are fully protected. He will lie to you about all of this, as he already has on numerous occasions -- but as I have noted, many Americans, including many liberals and progressives, are enthusiastically willing to believe anything.

And there's much, much more about the truth concerning Obama here, with many more links to follow.

Another ugly truth: anyone who still supports Obama and who denounced Bush wasn't sincere in the smallest degree about her or his criticisms of Bush. I've been over this ground before ("In the event, [the Democrats and progressives] didn't prove me wrong; to the contrary, they demonstrated the truth of what I had still hoped, however faintly, wasn't true. But what was demonstrated to be true was simply that virtually everything the Democrats and progressives claimed to be their fervent concern was merely instrumental: that is, they staked out the positions they did for their perceived political advantage, and for the assistance those positions would provide in regaining and consolidating power.").

One more ugly truth: anyone who votes for either the Democratic or Republican presidential nominee next year is ...

Yes, that's right: you're a pigfucker, too.

I'll definitely see you in hell, buddy.