If you’ve watched football or just about any other public event broadcast on TV the past several months, you no doubt have seen and felt the assault of unrelenting American nationalism and chest beating that spews forth from the various networks. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a football player express his appreciation for the “men and women in the U.S. military who are overseas fighting for our freedom” or some such drivel. Though I’m confident that the appreciation expressed is genuine and heartfelt, I just wish the sheeple who continually repeat these platitudes would actually take the time to reflect on what exactly it is they are saying.

First, if the noble members of the U.S. military are “fighting for our freedom,” then why the heck are they overseas? Members of the U.S. armed forces are at this moment occupying in the neighborhood of 140 countries, none of which, to my knowledge, have attacked people or property within our borders. An exception may be Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 members of the WTC Box Cutter Patrol were citizens. But for some reason, the U.S. military is protecting this regime as a friend, not attacking it. Figure that one out. It’s been shown untold number of times by umpteen number of observers that invasive intervention of this kind does nothing to prevent or stop war, but creates more conflict. I would like to challenge the conventional wisdom and proclaim that maybe our armed forces should be “fighting for our freedom” where it is threatened the most--right here in the Homeland.

On a daily basis, more and more of our cherished liberties are disappearing before our eyes, courtesy of a rogue regime that occupies not Kabul, Tehran, Baghdad or Riyadh, but that beloved Profanation on the Potomac known as Washington, D.C. It is there that the mighty armies of freedom protectors should aim their armaments if they were truly being directed to “fight for our freedom.” It is in the hallowed halls of the American Leviathan where the elected and un-elected hacks daily chip away at what remains of American liberty and self- government. We have our own Axis of Evil made of Democrats, Republicans and their Bolshevik sympathizers who threaten us, and they must be dealt with.

Be honest, who do you fear more: Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and their ilk or a combative Bush II, supported by a bloodthirsty Congress with two trillion of your dollars at its disposal to hoodwink and repress a generally unsuspecting, ill-informed, and oblivious public?

I’m certainly not suggesting that the U.S. military physically attack D.C., but I just want to illustrate the misdirected energy, time and wealth the American public channels through its military.

Secondly, I think it’s high time we give credit to the true heroes who are “fighting for our freedom,” not the ones in some dusty, backwater, Third World country searching for boogey men, but the courageous ones here at home who daily spread the truth, sometimes at significant personal and professional peril.

Let us begin with the brave news correspondents who travel the world to report the ugly, brutal facts of State-sponsored terrorism. These are the folks who daily brief us on the up close and personal costs of a desperate empire trying to maintain its preponderant domination over others--the broken bodies, destroyed communities and shattered families that are coldly lumped under the term “collateral damage.” They are adept at giving their readers firsthand testimony that cuts through the smokescreen of statist propaganda. Alan Bock once wrote of The State, “They know blood and brutality are necessary, but they want to pretend that it really isn’t as brutal as it is.” Thankfully, we’re able to read these unfiltered accounts from many fine websites such as Strike The Root.

We also have many bright people who analyze and comment on these reports. They illustrate how such activities are not benign, insignificant tragedies but portend a real threat to the liberty and individual sovereignty of every American. These commentators have to deal with vicious insults and being labeled “a traitor,” “un-American,” and part of the “blame America first crowd.” They soon, I believe, will have to confront and deal with an angry, indignant State hell bent on stopping any form of opposition to its agenda.

These people are the true freedom fighters to be saluted.

These people will feed the resistance.

These are the people who ultimately will be responsible for regaining and preserving liberty at home.

Why not a halftime salute to them?

Roger Young is a freelance photographer in Texas and maintains a website called PixelPrairie.com.  He believes that being a Christian, creationist and anarchist are three of the most rational decisions a person can make.

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