The Ultimate Sacrifice
Greetings to you all, in a previous article we examined some indicators that would be a first step in determining just how much America loves her service members and veterans. I will, in a future article, reveal just what it was that prompted me to include this set of articles on the website in the first place. But for now, we are on a trilogy of what I believe are the biggest possible indicators of our lack of love for our service members, and veterans after they are used up. And again, I encourage all of the readers to email me and voice their opinions, and experiences, both good and bad. In particular those people for which these articles are written to help. Your feedback is important to me as it will ensure I am on the right track.
The title of the article pretty much sums it up. The ultimate sacrifice refers to those who’s souls have departed their bodies, or sustained life altering injuries. The souls of many vibrant men and women that gave up the experience of living, or the normal use of their limbs, or mind, for what they believed was a worthy cause. A cause worthy of death, a cause that took them from loved ones and friends earlier than would have been natural. In their bravery and commitment to this cause, they did not flinch when the command was given to pack up and head out. They ran, not away from harsh living conditions, absence from family, but into the uncertainty of what the future would hold for them.
In their commitment to duty, we can find no fault in them whatsoever. In their assessment of a cause worthy of death I do find fault however. This assessment was not made using logic, it was made with emotional attachment to a cause so dear to them they are one of only a handful in the country of so many, that would sign up to die in the effort to preserve freedom for their fellow Americans. This is where things get real sticky. They only get that way, because of the thousands of families that have lost a husband, brother, sister, wife, in this so-called preservation of liberty. I am going to make some statements in the following paragraphs that have the potential to hurt, or piss off many of those people.
Even though I realize that many of you will direct your anger at me initially, my intention is not to show disrespect for those that have passed on to Valhalla, but to initiate a response from you towards the tyrants, that send our brave off to fight in a war that only benefits those that have an investment in war. I believe that one of the biggest indicators of how we do not love our service members, are the lists of useless senseless wars, all in the name of preserving liberty.
In my book, Land of The Free, Home of The Brave, And Other B.S. I dedicate an entire chapter to the wars this country of ours has been involved in, the cost, both in lives and dollars is covered, as well as what was gained for the American people. And when I say what was gained for the American people I am talking of the common person, not Lockheed Martin, not Boeing Aircraft company, not Haliburton. When you look up the list of government contractors you will see who benefits from these endless, senseless wars. In the article before you I will restrict the discussion to the last twenty or so years, and our obsession with the Middle East. I will also, with great confidence show how these wars did absolutely nothing to prolong our liberty, actually the opposite has occurred as a result of these wars. And that is the real wrinkle you see, when a person learns that a loved one, someone so dear to them as to be the breath of life itself is dead, and you learn for no good reason, well, people get emotional. And justifiably so, if you experience this awakening, please take a few days to collect your thoughts, and then unleash them upon your reps in Washington D.C.
Let me start off with this statement; our freedom and liberties were confirmed following the ratification of the Constitution on American soil in 1789, and just like a newborn baby begins the journey to death upon its birth, so too did our liberty, as it was established on the fields of Lexington and Concord. That death is a result of clever politicians, bankers, corporations, and an apathetic populace. While Americans were off dying in a war that feeds the war machine, we were sitting on our asses at home watching one judge after another denounce our freedoms according to how they interpret the law.
We stood by with our thumb up our ass as one bill after another was passed into law depriving Americans of freedom, all in the name of keeping us safe. And when you stood and applauded because you were not in the group affected by the law, you contributed to more of our demise than any Taliban member driving around in an old Toyota, toting an AK-47, could have dreamed of accomplishing. Maybe the group was of the pariah type, and you gave your approval because you believe they don’t deserve the same type of freedom as you do. Because while it doesn’t remove your freedom by them exercising their own type of freedom, it somehow violates what you believe to be the “right” way of living.
The mighty empire of Rome did not fall because of any known enemy outside of Rome, it fell because of its corrupt political arena, and its insatiable quest for endless bloodshed and war. And that is the same formula playing out in front of us today. The claim that we must fight on foreign soil to preserve our freedom here at home is what I like to refer to as the great lie! No foreign country since England has even attempted to challenge America’s sovereignty, and in making that one observation, we can attest that no nation has been in a position to take away liberties from American citizens. And quite honestly, even those that took our freedoms by way of the bench or halls of congress, did so with our consent.
As I watch on the telescreen, the boogie man that haunted Americans in their dreams from the time of the first A-bomb detonation in Russia, struggles with a small insignificant country called Ukraine. Ukraine is listed as the second most corrupt country in Europe, second only to Russia. But that hasn’t stopped us from sending billions of American tax dollars over there for their spending pleasure. It isn’t a foreign power we need to fear, it is the apathy of the American citizen, and the willingness of our congress to give it all away, that is the greatest threat to our nation. I ask you the American citizen, when was the last time you contacted your representative and told them what you think about the policies being put into play in this country? And I will challenge you further and ask when was the last time you actually took the time to look into the claims made by those that clamor for war, to see if those claims they make hold up under scrutiny?
Even after a British whistle blower https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/19/15_years_later_how_uk_whistleblower revealed that both Tony Blair and George Bush the younger knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there was no call for the heads of these men. Considering the thousands of dead and wounded Americans, the trillions of dollars spent on the conflict, and the tens of thousands of dead civilians at the hands of the United States government, and still only silence from her people. Muffled cries for peace, louder shouts of fear, and demands for more to be done in the effort to secure our freedom, the great lie.
I pose this question to you first, how was Iraq a threat to the United States if the story concerning weapons of mass destruction were, as we now know untrue? What was the threat to the average American in regards to Iraq? My belief is that the risk would have been much greater of being killed by a fellow American in a dark parking lot, than any threat from Iraq at the time. Does that mean we should level the neighborhood surrounding every dark parking lot? Doesn’t make any sense, does it? And neither do the wars we are fighting, and losing the greatest treasure of our nation, our youth.
What was the real reason we invaded a sovereign nation and killed tens of thousands of its citizens? I think maybe only the Skull and Bones members know the answer to that question. When we as a nation allow a president on his own to send troops to war, is the second greatest tragedy facing our service members today. The greatest tragedy is the blind mice that all hold onto each other’s tails, and follow in each other’s piss-stained footsteps. We refer to these mice as the congress, you know, the ones that hold the purse strings and could cancel these conflicts so fast that the embarrassment for the president would be too much to bear twice in a term. In my book I point out how these members do not do their jobs on any level, and only follow the commands of the leadership of the party. I believe it is time we let them know that the bar has been raised, and the expectations have changed. Do you, brave American, have the courage to send an email to your representative?
And now this question I pose to the American reader; what did we get for the American people from the war in Iraq? I am going to ask you to give ten minutes of intense thought to that question. How was your life as an American made better by the war in Iraq? Unless you are an executive or worker in the defense industry, one who’s business depends on orders from the defense industry, a manufacture of prosthetics, or the Federal Reserve, you probably didn’t get any bennies from that conflict. I can tell you that we lost 4,488 souls, with 32,223 wounded, and of those survivors we lose about twenty-two veterans of that war a day by suicide.
And then we have a conflict in Afghanistan that required the United States to send in its best to take on the Taliban and reform the countries policies. But did we really? Saudi Arabia had more ties to the group that was involved with the world trade center attack than anyone in Afghanistan. I believe we could have utilized our assets in the area and captured the supposed master mind Osama Bin Laden long before his supposed killing, years after the conflict started. Once again, the powers to be were given free reign by our congress to carry on in a war that had no basis for even occurring in the first place, but the mice are just following along.
If you as a congress person do not support a conflict that saw the deaths of about 70,000 civilians in that country, 2,403 dead Americans, and a combined price tag of $6.4 trillion dollars (Iraq and Afghanistan) you are considered weak! Or maybe you are scared of not following the commands of your leadership, and not following tail in mouth results in no committee appointments. You see the needs of our politicians come first, and getting in, and staying in at all costs are the name of the game. Do yourself a big favor and look back over the last twenty years and see how many times you can find that an Arab cost you your freedom. Then look back and investigate with vigor, how many of our liberties have been taken away by judges, politicians, corporations. Now what did you as an American benefit from, as a result of twenty years of war and $6.4 trillion dollars expended on that war?
As I stated in the beginning of the article, we are weaker, not stronger as a result of those wars. The deficit is through the roof and still we have about 250,000 bridges that are in need of urgent care in this country. Meanwhile we spend billions re-building the infrastructure of the countries we bomb the shit out of. Thanks to the Patriot Act, of which I cover in more detail in the book, our congress stripped us of so many protections from our government in one swoop as to be the equivalent of a nuclear anti-liberty bomb! And our congress put in the work order to have that bomb delivered to the American people. And so many of you said thank you congress, for making us safer! Without ever checking to see if it actually did.
These kinds of things only happen because of our willingness to sacrifice our children to a nation, or god, in the blind hope that our lives will not be disrupted according to the fearful mantra put out by the propaganda machine, called the public relations office of the White House. With the exception of the brave souls that wear the uniform to protect us against foreign invaders, and a dwindling section of populace still able to think for themselves, we are not a nation of brave souls, but scared sheep, huddled together in the hopes the shepherd will save us. Blind devotion to a person or political party has paralyzed the individual’s ability to make a decision based on what they see before them. Instead, relying on the leadership, or single person to “tell” them what is going on and why. It is time to take a big dose of smelling salts and wake the fuck up. Your blind devotion to a person or political party is the equivalent to handing over your identity to another, to relinquishing your thoughts and beliefs to the group mind.
As fewer and fewer people identify as an individual and more give up their identity to the mob, they then identify as the mob and not themselves. In a desire to be a part of the big group, dissent among the members wanes. And in that a lack of discussion over whether or not the ideas of the mob, be it, democrat or republican, are good for the people. It is this fear that stops the common American from raising hell over the terrible loss of life in wars that benefit nobody but the industrial military complex. They don’t want to be seen as “un-American” as if introducing some logic, and common sense to prevent loss of life and the expenditure of trillions of dollars that could go to improve the lives of Americans here at home is un-American.
To me financial security is very important to both an individual, and a nation in the pursuit of freedom. And after we consider the most important aspect of these wars to be the loss of life of all those involved, the financial burden to the living must be considered as well. In this nation we hear quite frequently how there is no money to help the homeless, or the mentally ill. Roads that were built in the 50’s are crumbling, bridges are collapsing. Fewer Americans can afford to send their children to advanced learning, whether it be college or trade school. And yet, somehow our wonderful self-serving government found a way to spend about $6.4 trillion dollars, in twenty years in the Middle East, getting Americans killed and butchering Arabs.
What if the lobbyist in D.C were sent packing, all 12,000 or so of them? Let us pretend for a moment that the politicians actually cared for America and her people. Let us imagine that the congress was made up of all independent minded politicians, no party affiliation. And this new group, elected by we the people, made a declaration to the American people and the world, that we would no longer engage in war unless the sovereignty of the nation was at stake. Not in the name of “American” interest as we are told today. In that same twenty- year period of time, that $6.4 trillion dollars, divided among fifty states would translate to $128 billion dollars each! Now that you have your creative juices flowing, imagine what could be done in your state with those $128 billion dollars to improve the lives of its citizens. I fully realize that I am a dreamer, are you?
Seamus Pendragon
