Country or Government?

by Paul Hein

Memorial day is again upon us, reminding us that hypocrisy and sentimentality, not to mention naïveté and gullibility, are with us to stay.

Someone with the title “White House Commission on National Moment of Remembrance” has written a letter to Dear Abby reminding us to “reclaim Memorial Day for the noble and patriotic purpose for which it was intended.”  How is this to be accomplished? All Americans are “to pause and reflect for one minute--at 3 p.m on Memorial Day, in remembrance of those who have died to preserve our freedom.” If  you’re driving, turn on your lights.  The playing of Taps is recommended at public events. This will remind us of the two million men and women who “have sacrificed their lives to defend and preserve this precious land of hopes and dreams.” The writer concludes with the hope that Abby’s readers will “join together in solidarity with those whose grief is fresh and deep, to express their gratitude to the men and women who have died that we might live in freedom.”

Well, there’s one thing to say for this bit of fluff: at least it didn’t refer to sacrifices for our country, although we can be sure that the weekend will not pass without our hearing that expression many times: the brave men and women who gave their lives for our country.

What nonsense! Our country was never at significant risk in any of our legitimate (i.e., declared by Congress) wars, and in the subsequent unlawful military adventures, the risk to the U.S. mainland was even less. Millions of American men and women (how many women?) have died fighting, but they were fighting for their government, not the country. Franklin Roosevelt admitted, in a letter to Colonel House, that the American government has been owned by “certain financial interests” since the days of Andrew Jackson. It was to protect those interests that doughboys died in WWI, and the consequence of WWI was WWII, in which additional hundreds of thousands died. Those killed in Korea or Vietnam weren’t defending our country, either. That these slain soldiers were brave is not the point: of course they were. Going off to fight, knowing that you might very well die in the ensuing battle, requires courage. But it is doubtful that any of those prepared to make the supreme sacrifice could tell you what they were sacrificing for, in anything but the most general terms: “We’re fighting for freedom,” or “to preserve the American way of life.” Well, you can’t expect a man facing death to be clear-headed.

Were they fighting and dying to preserve our freedoms, as suggested by the “White House Commission on National Moment of Remembrance?” What freedom was threatened by the Kaiser, or Emperor Hirohito? Yes, if we had lost the World Wars, American would have been occupied by German or Japanese troops, and we’d have had to take our orders from them. Instead, we take them from Americans. Orders are orders! Does the language matter?

Japanese and Germans took orders from Americans during their occupation (our troops are still there, more than half a century later) but today, they take their orders from their own, in their own language. So did our erstwhile enemies loose their freedom? When people fight for their freedom, it is against their own governments that they fight. Today, my freedom is curtailed by my own government, not that of Saddam. 

Propaganda, of course, is the way governments speak to their subjects. It is not surprising that we find this sort of meretricious tripe being circulated on Memorial Day. Simple straightforward speech is inconsistent with government objectives. You can hardly expect our rulers to admit that they delight in war, and are perfectly willing to accept American deaths to further their hegemony.

No, the frustration lies not in our rulers’ hypocrisy, but rather in the pathetic acceptance of it by Americans, who continue to believe that our dead soldiers died fighting for our freedom, or to protect our country. This much can be admitted: They did not die in vain. But the purpose for which they gave their lives was not, and is not, the preservation of the country, or the maintenance of our freedoms!

May 27, 2002