Dear vets, thank you for your sacrifices

On 2017, The Cynical Times thanks all current and former members of the U.S. military for the sacrifices they’ve made for the greater good.

Not for their service.

Not for their blind obedience to policy decisions made by the political hookers of Washington, D.C.

But for their conscious choices to put themselves in harm’s way to protect our nation and our society, both during and after their military service. Altruistic choices which echo those of the members of pro-democracy movements like Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock – often at far greater risk to life, limb, freedom and emotional peace.

Why do we honor the living as well as the dead on a day dedicated to the memory of those who died while serving in our nation’s armed forces?

Because blind obedience is not a redeeming quality. We are not dogs, we’re grown men and grown women.

In that context, the personal policy decisions our veterans make for themselves after mustering out are just as important as their willingness to obediently execute the orders of our nation’s corrupt elected leaders. 

The altruistic mindset of duty, service and love of country our service members and veterans embody could not be more different than the false patriotism and outright treason of the Predatory 1 Percent (P1P). The human garbage which has neutered our free press and given us the corporate profit growth strategies of forever war, disposable Americans, offshoring, needless automation, global empire, profits over people, usury, needless layoffs, for-profit medicine, for-profit education, savage capitalism, debt slavery, privatization, foreclosure fraud, predatory lending, and class warfare.

These dubious policies have engendered a disastrous suicide rate of 30 veterans a day. That compares with a death rate of just 0.8 a day at the height of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Why are veterans killing themselves?

 

Because the various branches of our armed forces inculcated them with the laudable concepts of duty, honor, sacrifice and public service. Those values simply do not work in modern corporate salt mines which value betrayal, lies, corruption, duplicity and greed.

Dear veterans, you are our cherished children, siblings, and parents. Don’t despair, don’t hang your heads in shame, and please don’t take your own lives.

There’s nothing wrong with you, but there is something very wrong with the self described “masters of the universe” in corporate America and their employees in our self described “political aristocracy” right now. Their criminal weakness is magnified at a time when both parties work for Wall Street and none champion our nation’s poor and faltering middle class. Much less veterans in need.

These are the same sonsabitches who gave their fellow Americans the false choice between the clever corruption of Hillary Clinton and the naked greed of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. No one should have been surprised when it didn’t end well.

They’re the same traitors who routinely bow to the House of Saud, even though the wealthy desert tyrants financed the 9/11 attacks.

The same bullshit artists who gutted our forces in Afghanistan to make a grab for oil in Iraq.

The painful truth is that we’re all just equipment to the P1P,  instead of fellow members of a functional democracy. We’re their hammers, typewriters, lawnmowers and plastic sex dolls.

We know our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen don’t make policy while on active duty. However, we dearly hope those of you who have completed your military service will continue to battle for the greater good in our faltering democracy in new ways as civilians.

We hope you’ll honor your former colleagues who didn’t make it home. As well as those who now live in our nation’s forests and under our bridges, self medicating with alcohol and opiates as they shun a society which is increasingly full of shit.

You can do that by following the courageous example of American patriots like (USMC Retired), the two time Medal of Honor winner, and taking on the predatory posers who have re-emerged to plague us all.

These are the same monopolistic business interests who approached Butler about leading their army in 1933, when they asked him to be part of to overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They offered to make the a very rich man if he would help them take away America’s freedom.

Instead, Smedley stuck it up their ass with a cherry on top by exposing the treasonous corporate oligarchs to public scrutiny. He foiled their plans and began touring the country afterward to deliver a speech called ““

That was his idea of patriotism. Ours too.

Which is why we reserve a special place in our hearts today for people like Smedley Butler, former U.S. Army Pvt. , former Navy Seal and Minnesota Governer  (Independent), Vietnam Vet , , director Oliver Stone, and (USMC Retired); the members of pro-democracy groups like Occupy Marines and Veterans Who Support Occupy Wall Street; and the veterans who flocked to Standing Rock last year to frustrate the naked greed of an energy industry which is undermining U.S. energy security by exporting our finite fossil fuel reserves to the highest bidder.

Thankfully, there are still contrary people in this world who will neither be bullied into conformity nor intimidated into blind obedience.

People like the slightly built Manning, who stands about 5 feet tall and weighs about 105 pounds. This trans woman may not be military recruiting poster material, but there’s no questioning her guts.

The former intelligence analyst’s got a lot of scrap.

Manning made like Smedley and out of the P1P, instead of surrendering to their tyranny and taking her own life.

This lowly specialist documented the knowing lies underpinning the corporate empire. The cache of documents she released in 2010, at the tender age of 22, included videos of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan in which civilians and journalists were killed, logs of military incident reports, assessment files of detainees, and a quarter-million scandalous cables from American diplomats stationed around the world.

We’re programmed to say and do a lot of crazy things by the Wall Street lie machines. They want us to believe we’re somehow defending free markets when we defend the interests of monopolistic multinationals like Facebook, Boeing and News Corp. 

The painful truth is that there is no group in American society which embodies the greater good ideals of Democratic Socialism – as practiced by our allies in Europe – more than the members of our nation’s armed forces.

Our world is a better place because of you.

So please, spit out the Faux News and CNN propaganda crack pipes and start thinking for yourselves if you haven’t already. If something sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Question everything, but the faltering middle class’ unqualified love for you.

Try to keep in mind something former U.S. Army Sergeant Shamar Thomas said during Occupy Wall Street in 2012.

“The 1 Percent kicks the bottom of the barrel until it falls out, then they move up,” said Thomas, who served two tours in Iraq.

That means the private equity fund predators and hedge fund predators of Wall Street will eventually get around to us all. Forever profit growth requires no less. Like a modern cloud of locusts, Wall Street’s financial predators must find new food sources because they keep depleting the old ones.

Meaning that you could be very well be next on the savage capitalist hit parade. Unless your last name is Trump, Bush, Clinton, Hilton or Pelosi.

Smedley’s nickname was “The Gimlet Eye,” in recognition of his affinity for the gin and juice beverage called a “Gimlet.” Just like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

If you feel like hoisting one to honor Smedley and those like him today, on Memorial Day, you won’t be alone.

You’re All Americans in our eyes.

Thank you for your sacrifices and those of your buddies. Thank you for your willingness to pay the price to protect your fellow Americans. Thank you for caring.

Please don’t ever stop.