Fuck your Sense of Patriotism

Last year, I received an email from a family member (text is at the bottom of the post) that played up the sense of selflessness a fallen soldier had and how warm President Bush was when he met this fallen soldiers family. Now, there is something to be said for standing up and fighting for something you believe in. I have no problem with that. My problem lies more in the twisted rhetoric that is often employed by people who are a product of the American indoctrination system when they talk about military men and women.

If what you have read so far offends your sensibilities, you should stop reading now…

Me (on the right) and some other Marines serving our country proudly with the “suck it” salute…

Now, before I get into my anti-patriotism screed, I want to start by saying that I have never been one to be swept up in the ideas of patriotism, religion or any other constuct that is essentially romanticized bullshit. It is so easy to find holes in our collective notions about service, faith or loyalty that I don’t feel like I need to get into it. It is a charade. We all play it, and I am just as guilty of countless others in the exploitation of the charade. Also, I do not have a fundamental beef with violence. In fact, I think violence is an excellent tool in conflict resolution. I do have a problem with government ordered violence under most circumstances. The only exception would be if there was a real foreign threat (no, Bin Laden doesn’t count) or if government continues down its path toward authoritarianism.

Nobility of Soldierdom

There is nothing particularly noble about military service in and of itself. You can find plenty of examples of exceptional behavior in the face of adversity in military history, but you can also find it just as commonly in civilian history. Being in the military doesn’t make you a hero or otherwise noble, it makes you an armed servant to the government. Since I don’t have a lot of respect for government, obviously I don’t hold their killing forces in high regard either. Government, and its brainwashed minions, encourage the romancification of military service and because we naturally look to leadership for behavioral example the vast majority of America buys into it. I hate the saying “thank you for your service” or other such nonsense like the US military is really doing much of anything in the way of serving the people of this country. The vast majority of the duty of the military is to protect the global interests of the monied elite, both American and foreign. Iraq and Afghanistan have absolutely nothing to do with security, freedom or protection of the American way of life. They have a whole lot to do with shaping and maintaining an international status that is conducive to business interests that are allied with the US government.

Clearly, there is not anything noble about what I just described for 99.9% of America. It does not help us, it hurts us. If you, or if someone you know is in the military, you need to understand that their decency is in no way associated with their military experience. Either they are a good person, or they are not. Service members and veterans are not special.

The cost of freedom

Another saying that seems ingrained into the American psyche is that freedom isn’t free, it is paid for with the lives of American fighting men and women. Obviously, I have my problems with this too. It is my opinion that the greatest impediment to personal freedom in America is the activities of the federal government. A lot of people would respond to this with some reference to the bill of rights or some other such nonsense. Well, let me give you a quick history lesson, the founding fathers (rich, white paranoid men) wrote the bill of rights to protect the people from government, not from some perceived outside threat. Osama Bin Laden or whatever other bad guy you want to create will never take away my freedom – but the US government is slowly eroding away at it. To say that you believe the military is protecting your freedom is indicative of your level of intellectual curiousity and nothing more.

I would say that freedom is free and we are all stupid enough to pay the government to take it away from us. Just a thought. Also, as you will notice in my reply to the email I received that sparked some of this in the first place, our freedom is more directly tied to whether or not the government perceives what we are doing with our freedom as a threat. An American that is interested in going to work during the week and spending time with friends or watching sports or some other form of entertainment will always be free under the current system. On the other hand, an American who is dedicated to the opposition of tyranny and intervention may find out the limits of freedom pretty quickly.

With that, I will close this out with the email chain that got me so worked up in the first place.

enjoy,

mike

The email chain



Mr Mayberry,

Thank you for taking the time to spout your trite rhetoric to the entire email chain. I know better than to try and reason with a person who is so clearly jaded. I also know better than to call into question the opinions that you quite casually state as fact. The only thing it would accomplish is to re-re-annoy all of the people on this chain.

I do, however, take umbrage with you insinuating that our Men and Women selflessly offering their lives for the country are mere pawns…further insinuating that they are not intelligent enough to understand the decision they have made.

Fortunately, there are still people in this country who do things, not because they are mindless pawns, but because they believe in said things. I could not be prouder of my Brother-in-law…or of my friends, family, and countless people I don’t know personally that made the same brave decision that he did. Their actions and the actions of generations before them are the only reason you and I have the freedom of voicing such divergent opinions.

There are still people who are not so paralyzed by their own cynicism and anger that they can proudly and unapologetically believe in something (even if it’s unpopular). Hopefully someday you’ll know or remember what that feels like.

Until then:

Please do not send me any other emails like this. And please don’t write me off as some republican complaining about democrats. I hope that if Obama is elected he would actually have the fortitude and vision to make the right decisions in the interest of the country. I also hope the same for McCain. There are many national politicians who are trash, but to resign ourselves to them all being bad is irresponsible and akin to resigning our nation to collapse. Apathy and actionless complaining accomplish nothing.

There is no need to respond as we’ll likely never see eye to eye. But if you choose to respond, please do everyone on the chain the service of removing their names first. Nobody is interested in seeing two very opinionated people argue their points in vain. I simply wanted to let Zac and others know that your opinion (as loud and invasive as it may have been) is not one shared by all or even most of the people he will encounter.

Respectfully,

Rob

This garbage really makes me angry. I don’t doubt the president’s sincerity, I don’t even doubt that the events occurred as outlined in this email. I believe that the president truly does feel a deep gratitude to all fallen service members for their sacrifice.

The thing about this story, and other emails like this, is that it only tells the human side of the story about the president. George W Bush made a terrible decision to start a war and then haphazardly occupy Iraq. Due to this decision, this guy’s kid is dead. If I knew the dead kid I probably would not have liked him very much – from the way he was described he was the kind of person that most people I knew in the military couldn’t stand to be around.

He went to Africa to tell people that the God they believed in was the wrong god and that he was right. Missionaries do some good, but they are only doing it to spread their religious views. The Mormon view is no more valid than any other religious view so I think it is disgusting that they travel around the world trying to brainwash other people into believing in Mormonism.

So after being a pawn for a religious theology, he became a pawn for the US government’s expansion of their power in the world. I don’t see either aspect of this guy’s “service” as particularly noble. Shawn strikes me as the type of guy that never thought about anything beyond what he was told to think. That is the biggest shame that I take away from this story. This kid is dead because he went along with what he was told and in the process made his contribution to one of the greatest mistakes this country has ever made. Thousands of Americans dead, tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis dead so that America can position their corporations to profit from the exploitation of a far away region’s natural resources. We are all guilty of being a pawn in this game. We have all laid down and not made any noise about what our government has done in our names.

The foreign policy of the past seven years is nothing to be celebrated the way that it is in this email. It should be a source of great shame. I hope that you take a minute to think about this, and think about our collective inaction as American people to control the future of our country.

Please do not send me any other emails like this. And please don’t right me off as some democrat complaining about republicans. I don’t think Obama would actually have the fortitude to make any major changes to US foreign policy. I also don’t think McCain will do anything good. They are national politicians because they are good at raising money and saying the things that they need to say to get elected.

Sincerely,
Mike Mayberry

My boss sent this article to me and I wanted to share it with some of my special friends. The story is even more moving and unique because Brittany (my wonderful daughter-in-law) has a brother named Zachary that joined the Air Force this past year and is serving at Eielson AFB in Alaska.

Zak was selected to stand guard outside the Presidential plane during its time on the ground while at Eielson. Thank you Zak, for your selfless sacrifice to protect and serve our country.

Commentary by Lt. Col. Mark Murphy
354th Maintenance Group deputy commander

8/15/2008 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska – I learned a big lesson on service Aug. 4, 2008, when Eielson had the rare honor of hosting President Bush on a refueling stop as he traveled to Asia.

It was an event Eielson will never forget — a hangar full of Airmen and Soldiers getting to see the Commander in Chief up close, and perhaps even shaking his hand. An incredible amount of effort goes into presidential travel because of all of the logistics, security, protocol, etc … so it was remarkable to see Air Force One land at Eielson on time at precisely 4:30 p.m.–however, when he left less than two hours later, the President was 15 minutes behind schedule.

That’s a big slip for something so tightly choreographed, but very few people know why it happened. Here’s why.

On Dec. 10, 2006, our son, Shawn, was a paratrooper deployed on the outskirts of Baghdad. He was supposed to spend the night in camp, but when a fellow soldier became ill Shawn volunteered to take his place on a nighttime patrol–in the convoy’s most exposed position as turret gunner in the lead Humvee. He was killed instantly with two other soldiers when an IED ripped through their vehicle.

I was thinking about that as my family and I sat in the audience listening to the President’s speech, looking at the turret on the up-armored Humvee the explosive ordnance disposal flight had put at the edge of the stage as a static display.

When the speech was over and the President was working the crowd line, I
felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a White House staff member. She asked me and my wife to come with her, because the President wanted to meet us.

Stunned, we grabbed our two sons that were with us and followed her back into a conference room. It was a shock to go from a crowded, noisy hangar, past all of those security people, to find ourselves suddenly alone in a quiet room.

The only thing we could hear was a cell phone vibrating, and noticed that it was coming from the jacket Senator Stevens left on a chair. We didn’t answer.

A short time later, the Secret Service opened the door and President Bush walked in. I thought we might get to shake his hand as he went through. But instead, he walked up to my wife with his arms wide, pulled her in for a hug and a kiss, and said, ‘I wish I could heal the hole in your heart.’ He
then grabbed me for a hug, as well as each of our sons. Then he turned and said, ‘Everybody out.’

A few seconds later, the four of us were completely alone behind closed doors with the President of the United States and not a Secret Service agent in sight.

He said, ‘Come on, let’s sit down and talk.’ He pulled up a chair at the side of the room, and we sat down next to him. He looked a little tired from his trip, and he noticed that his shoes were scuffed up from leaning over concrete barriers to shake hands and pose for photos. He slumped down the chair, completely relaxed, smiled, and suddenly was no longer the President – he was just a guy with a job, sitting around talking with us like a family member at a barbeque.

For the next 15 or 20 minutes, he talked with us about our son, Iraq, his family, faith, convictions, and shared his feelings about nearing the end of his presidency. He asked each of our teenaged sons what they wanted to do in life and counseled them to set goals, stick to their convictions, and not worry about being the ‘cool’ guy.

He said that he’d taken a lot of heat during his tenure and was under a lot of pressure to do what’s politically expedient, but was proud to say that he never sold his soul. Sometimes he laughed, and at others he teared up. He said that what he’ll miss most after leaving office will be his role as Commander in Chief.

One of the somber moments was when he thanked us for the opportunity to meet, because he feels a heavy responsibility knowing that our son died because of a decision he made. He was incredibly humble, full of warmth, and completely without pretense. We were seeing the man his family sees.

We couldn’t believe how long he was talking to us, but he seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever. In the end, he thanked us again for the visit and for the opportunity to get off his feet for a few minutes. He then said, ‘Let’s get some pictures.’ The doors flew open, Secret Service and the White House photographer came in, and suddenly he was the President again. We posed for individual pictures as he gave each of us one of his coins, and then he posed for family pictures. A few more thank yous, a few more hugs, and he was gone.

The remarkable thing about the whole event was that he didn’t have to see us at all. If he wanted to do more, he could’ve just given a quick handshake and said, ‘Thanks for your sacrifice.’ But he didn’t – he put everything and everyone in his life on hold to meet privately with the family of a Private First Class who gave his life in the service of his country.

What an incredible lesson on service. If the President of the United States is willing to drop everything on his plate to visit with a family, surely the rest of us can do it. No one is above serving another person, and no one is so lofty that he or she can’t treat others with dignity and respect.

We often think of service in terms of sacrificing ourselves for someone in a position above us, but how often do we remember that serving someone below us can be much more important? If you’re in a leadership capacity, take a good look at how you’re treating your people, and remember that your role involves serving the people you rely on every day.