Sacrificng to the Nth Degree

From the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the present day our country has been involved in one military conflict after the other. The most costly in American lives was, ironically, when we were fighting against ourselves in the Civil War (if that is not an oxymoron I don't know what is). I could chronicle each one but would probably forget about one along the way. The commonality among all of these conflicts is that they were started by people who generally stayed out of harm's way and the ones that paid the ultimate price were generally poor and uneducated members of our society. A careful analysis of each conflict will find that imperialism on one side or the other was one of the driving factors. Politicians start wars. Plain and simple. And this is not unique to our country. My question is what induces the masses to offer their lives for no more than some flowery rhetoric from some weasel politician?

Before you start to think that maybe I have had too many margaritas let's examine this. A couple of historical examples will be illustrative. There were a number of reasons that the Southern states seceded in 1861. The south had an agricultural based economy and relied heavily on slave labor to maximize their profits. With the abolitionists in the North on a mission the Southern states decided they wanted the status quo and took their marbles and went home. Okay then why did they have to fight? Apparently the federal government saw secession as an act of war and could not tolerate it. It was one group imposing it's will on another. The issue could of been how thick the bacon was sliced. However, the issue was the fundamental right of freedom. That was enough to get both sides to work their citizenry into a fever pitch and start fighting each other. Four years and over 600,000 lives lost and the issue was settled, right? No, it took 100 years more to implement the true emancipation of the slaves and some of their descendents would argue that they are still in a struggle.

Second example, Vietnam. After two world wars the concept of "limited war" or undeclared war was ushered in with the Korean Conflict. Vietnam took it to a new level. Eisenhower sent the first military advisers into Vietnam to prop up the South Vietnamese government. At the time we were deep in the Cold War and there was a Communist under every rock. The Domino Theory was the rationale for defending South Vietnam, because if they fell the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia would fall under the control of Communism. We had a big investment in the Philippines and that was the closest thing to a democracy at the time so let's get it on. So for almost 20 years we were involved at some level in the conflict (never a declared war) losing over 58,000 men and women. A small number by world war standards but because we saw pictures of it on the 6 o'clock news it made a bigger impact.

The commonality between these two conflicts is the soldiers that fought them. In the Civil War the average Southern soldier did not own slaves, or land for that matter. They were largely uneducated and were made promises that could not be kept. They got caught up in the fervor and rhetoric of war and were poorly trained and inadequately armed. Toward the end of the war desertion was common
as the fight left them. It was commonplace for the rich land owners to pay a poor man or sharecropper on his land to go to war in his stead. So as I said the rank and file generally did not include the privileged .

Fast forward to Vietnam and not much changed. Still the poor were most of the rank and file but there was a twist this time. World War II saw the integration of the armed services which opened up "opportunities" for Blacks to serve their country more easily. The rich could not pay someone to serve in their stead during Vietnam so they found another way : college deferment from the draft. The children of the privileged went to school while the poor were drafted and immediately sent to the rice patties.

Tomorrow is the day set aside to honor those that died in service to their country. If you have the TV on you will see the President lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I'm sure he will make an appropriate speech about those young men and women whose lives were cut short by a conflict started by men Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Stalin, or any other nutcase in history. These men and women were called to service by their country and willingly gave up their lives to defend the ideals of freedom. THEY are what make our country great, not the maggot politicians that always seem to make their sacrifice necessary! Without our military pulling their fat out of the fire our way of life would be much different!

So in a way to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice I propose we do all we can to limit the number in the future that will join their ranks. Choose better leaders and keep a better eye on the ones we do choose. They get away with only what we allow! As you are enjoying your day off tomorrow remember those lost in service to our country. They made it as well as your way of life possible!