UPDATE BELOW
By Robert Wenzel
Today is Memorial Day.
It is the day set aside by the United States government to honor those killed while fighting for the US armed forces.
Since in my view, the wars these men fought in were unnecessary, I view the fallen dead more as dumb saps than anything else. They either signed up for service on their own in the current voluntary military or were not clever enough to figure out a way to stay out of harm's way when the country had a draft or were not aware enough that they should stay out of harm's way.
I am sure amongst them are some natural born killers who got their rocks off killing in foreign lands and we are probably better off with them gone but for the most part these men to a large degree drank the kool-aid and thought that they were somehow fighting to protect liberty at home by killing some foreigners in rice paddies or in the desert or on the beaches of Normandy or here at home during the Civil War.
Dumb.
Libertarians should take this day to teach the young about the propaganda behind government war efforts and that there is no honor in getting your balls or your head blown off for the state.
That US presidents send men to war for their own agendas that have nothing to do with defending the homeland.
That becoming a soldier in the modern day is becoming a cog in the military-industrial-complex.
It is sad that so many have died in the wars of the modern day Empire and we can visit the locations of the military dead, if we are so inclined, to remind us of the horrors of war but not to honor these men, rather to think about how the lives of these men were cut short because of government lies and evil.
Teaching about the propaganda of war is a great resistance to the military-industrial-complex. and is much nobler than becoming a sap and picking up a gun for the state.
Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and most recently Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. More about Wenzel here.
UPDATE
Here is an example of what the propaganda looks like. Retweeted by the "libertarian" Mercatus Center:
This #MemorialDay, the #MasonNation honors all the men and women who have given their lives in service to our country 🇺🇸 #ThankYou pic.twitter.com/Hb4u9Y2B86— George Mason University (@GeorgeMasonU) May 27, 2019
I mainly feel sorry for those who fought and died in WW1 and WW2 - two completely pointless wars that America had no business being involved in. And looking at the Western world of today it makes their sacrifices all that more pointless.
ReplyDeleteMost of the political and humanitarian disasters of the 20th Century had their origins in the great upheaval that was the Great War of 1914 to 1918. That war led to the rise of Socialism and Fascism with consequences we still feel today. WWI gave us the technocrats' predilection for war economies, the military-industrial complex, many illiberal and anti-market policies, inflationism, the rise of nationalism based on racial mores, you name it. It was an unmitigated disaster, a calamitous tragedy.
DeleteHas any American military action been beneficial to Americans let alone the world? Most point to the Revolutionary War and WWII and say yes.
ReplyDeleteLet’s look at the results of the Revolutionary War. What we have now are the results of the Revolutionary War. Not only in the USA but the world. That the USA has more independence than the colonies is debatable but we surely do not have more of what the war was ostensibly about: taxes and (leaving slavery out of the argument) freedom.
My father lied about his age to fight in WWII. We all know the Nazis were horrible but, had my father and all the other soldiers from all the nations, both Allied and Axis, known the history, how entangling alliances led to WWI, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, and finally WWII because of more entangling alliances, they might have made better decisions. No soldiers no wars.
But that is not how the world has worked. The masses are propagandized, miss-educated and ignorant. Pointing out this fact may be the best way to start our argument against war and the state in general.
No, I do not honor my father, or anyone else, for their military sacrifice. They got caught up in the BS. Because BS makes the world go ‘round, being ignorant is the default state of the majority of the population, I am both angry at and understanding of those that have been and are in the military.
No absolutely not. Theyre mercenary murdering ways did nothing for this country other than create blowback and pain.
ReplyDeleteGood riddance!
I'm familiar with the Libertarian argument that US policies caused the Japanese government to attack Pearl Harbor. I'm curious about what the Libertarian arguement would have been after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He never spoke about the details. Your remark about someone you don't know and about circumstances you did not live through sounds more like hate than reason.