Rethinking patriotic dogma...
$Q: "Multinational corporations have a profound interest in cheerleading for war and in the deification of those sent to execute it. For many of these corporations, the U.S. military is essentially a private army dispatched around the world as needed to protect their investments and to open new markets."
I am surprised to find myself linking to a second article from Salon.com. Salon is not an organization that I have much respect for. Since Glen Greenwald exited to the London Guardian, it is mostly staffed by Neocons, neo-Trotskyites (or do I repeated myself?), and nihilist whim worshippers. This article is worth your time however, but with this caveat: it may offend you and challenge many of the things you think you know and which you believe you know to be correct and moral—but you should let it. A mind that is not willing to engage, especially in private reading, with challenging ideas is the most closed. I would hope this is case on this site.
Let me also say upfront, it is not my intention to accuse or cast a guilty light upon anyone in the military or their families. We all travel our own journeys, based on the roads that were open to us at the time we made each choice. If we have at some point made a turn based on limited or wrong information, well that was not our fault if that information was withheld from us. We all do the best we can with tools we have available. The challenge though, is to be willing to do better once we have better tools and better information.
It is not a long article. Indeed, I hope you spend much longer thinking about it than reading it...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/25/no_thank...
I am surprised to find myself linking to a second article from Salon.com. Salon is not an organization that I have much respect for. Since Glen Greenwald exited to the London Guardian, it is mostly staffed by Neocons, neo-Trotskyites (or do I repeated myself?), and nihilist whim worshippers. This article is worth your time however, but with this caveat: it may offend you and challenge many of the things you think you know and which you believe you know to be correct and moral—but you should let it. A mind that is not willing to engage, especially in private reading, with challenging ideas is the most closed. I would hope this is case on this site.
Let me also say upfront, it is not my intention to accuse or cast a guilty light upon anyone in the military or their families. We all travel our own journeys, based on the roads that were open to us at the time we made each choice. If we have at some point made a turn based on limited or wrong information, well that was not our fault if that information was withheld from us. We all do the best we can with tools we have available. The challenge though, is to be willing to do better once we have better tools and better information.
It is not a long article. Indeed, I hope you spend much longer thinking about it than reading it...
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/25/no_thank...
The reason I ask is, if it is not acceptable to ask one man to live his life for another, or to do the same yourself, how does one justify a mercenary military paid for on the backs of taxpayers for the almost exclusive benefit of corporations or special interests? Butler hinted at these questions almost 80 years ago and they remain without rational, internally consistant response. I would have thought that given Rand's philosophy and process, such questions would at least receive serious discussion here.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176...