· Exodus 20: 1, 13
November 11. Our National Day of Propaganda and Lies. When we remember those who died in wars allegedly fought for "our freedom and rights."
Hahaha. Good one.
Which war, exactly, have we fought for our freedom and rights? Let's see.
There was the Boer Wars. Wait, those were for the gold of the Transvaal.
World War I? That was war for the sake of having a war. Everybody wanted a war. They had been wanting a war for years. They were excited to go to war. All the governments of Europe were very careful not to do anything that might prevent the war happening. But when push came to shove, they realized to their dismay that modern weapons made war no longer an expensive gentlemen's sport, but a grotesque butchery ending inevitably in stalemate until one side or the other ran out of resources.
World War II? Was that against fascism, or for the right of peoples to choose their own government? As to the former, most of the fighting was between a right-wing totalitarian state and a left-wing totalitarian state. As to the latter, most of Europe was ceded to a totalitarian regime by a hip-pocket deal between Stalin and Churchill; England maintained that the "right of peoples" certainly did not apply to any part of the British Empire; and in Asia, the purpose of the war was to defend Western imperialism against Japanese imperialism. The Poles and the French were fighting to repel the invader, yes; though the Poles got the shitty end of the stick as no one lifted a finger for their freedom.
After World War II there was the creation of the state of Israel, where everything has been done ever since to maintain a state of perpetual war. There was the Partition of India and Pakistan, which was much more successful than anything we have done for "freedom and democracy" in the post-colonial world, but that was none of our doing and not something we commemorate.
Then there was Korea. That was on the one hand, Mao wanting Chiang Kai-shek's NRA annihilated, and Stalin seizing the opportunity to bog down both China and the US; on the other hand, an illegitimate so-called "UN" intervention mainly for the purpose of consolidating the US's military installation in the Pacific. And while Korea was going on, China invaded Tibet and not one of our little circle of friendly fat-cat countries has ever lifted a finger to redress that wrong.
After that there were wars all over the colonial empires to throw off the imperial powers. Those wars were most certainly about freedom, but we don't remember them on this day, or on any other day. Canada didn't fight for anyone's freedom in Indochina, Algeria, India, Pakistan, or anywhere else. That would have been a proper "freedom and rights" cause, but we weren't in it, and our good buddies were all on the side of oppression and tyranny.
Then there was Vietnam. More so than Korea, this was an early quagmire of American interventionism where civilians were slaughtered in the name of "peace and freedom" and a pathetically inferior Third-World army held off against the apparent might of First World imperialism.
There was the Hungarian revolution; we did nothing. There was the Suez crisis; we were on the side of imperialism. There was the invasion of Laos by North Vietnam; we did nothing. There was Cuba; another attempted US invasion of a sovereign country. Later they invaded the Dominican Republic, successfully for once. There was the invasion of Czechoslovakia; we did nothing. Cyprus; we did nothing. East Timor; we did nothing.
In 1979-89 there was the first war of the world against the people of Afghanistan. Allegedly, because this was some kind of resistance against the Soviets. In practice, the Mujahedeen were never on the side of freedom, rights and democracy in the first place. Then of course we turned on them.
In the Iran-Iraq war, we armed Iraq though Iran was much more democratic. Then we turned on Iraq.
In the Falklands, we were on the side of imperialism. The US invaded Granada; we did nothing. The US invaded Panama; we did nothing.
In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, the world attacked Iraq. To defend Kuwait? No. To defend the oil of Kuwait, yes, but more importantly, the US had given Iraq permission to invade Kuwait, so they could then have an excuse to invade Iraq. For the rights and freedom of the people of Iraq? No. For the oil of Iraq, of course. The actual living condition of the people of Iraq have suffered tremendously as a result. Then we attacked Iraq again in 1998, for no apparent reason. In 2003 we attacked Iraq again for no apparent reason. And then we attacked Afghanistan for even less reason. Because some guy who might possibly have had something to do with knocking down two office towers may have been hiding somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. Normal people would issue a warrant for such a person to stand trial and apply to have him extradited, then try him in a properly constituted court of law; we, backing our American pals, invaded a sovereign country, overthrew their government, parked ourselves there for seven years, had the accused shot down like a dog by people with no authority to do so, and then for whatever reason, still haven't left the country. But meanwhile the US are creating reasons to start a war against Pakistan, a country that has always been our ally and has never even had a war except over disputed territories with India. We call our soldiers hero for dying in this trumped-up war against a desperately poor country that does not have a single war plane capable of reaching North America. One time a Canadian soldier was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Afghanistan. Nothing to do with any armed struggled; the guy just rolled a military vehicle. Had he done so at CFB Petawawa and lived, he'd have been disciplined for wrecking his equipment, but because he was part of an invasion force in Afghanistan, he was called a hero.
Meanwhile, the US and Ethiopia invaded Somalia; we were on the side of the invader. I don't think one single person in Somalia had his or her rights and freedom increased by that gratuitous attack. That's not counting the countless insurgencies, border clashes, civil wars and other armed conflicts where we either did not bother to protect anyone's rights, freedom and democracy, or we did so covertly because it suits our imperialist buddies to destabilize one party or another.
I haven't even mentioned God in all that. You know why? Because none of our wars are righteous or godly or Christian. There is no such thing as a righteous war in God's eyes. There is no need of any reading of the Bible except these four words: "Thou shalt not kill." Period. There is no such thing as righteous killing. But our wars don't even have the outward appearance of righteousness. They are not for rights, freedom, democracy, self-defence, or even protecting the weak and the vulnerable. Our wars are like all wars, nothing but greed and ego. And since we've realized that modern warfare entails such unpleasantness as total war and mutually-assured destruction, we've made quite sure to have wars only with small, weak, poor countries that are completely incapable of doing us any harm.
War is wrong. Our wars are wrong. Our wars are, if it's possible, more wrong than the usual war, because we are not even fighting to defend ourselves, but only to oppress others and make ourselves rich. God wants no part of our wars and our little propaganda services on November 11. God has only one thing to say about all this: THOU. SHALT. NOT. KILL.
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not kill.
Is anyone listening to this? THOU SHALT NOT KILL! Not for oil, not for politics, not for ideas, not for job creation, not to boost Halliburton shares, not for glory, not for displays of power. Not even for self-defence, if you're a Christian, or a satyagrahi. Thou. Shalt. Not. Kill.
That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment