I Was No Hero . .

[FairWinds]

Here is an Op-ed I wrote on the hijacking of Veterans Day.

It may well ruffle some feathers, but needs to be said.

The real heroes are those who resist militarism.

http://otherwords.org/redefining-heroism/

If you agree, please consider supporting the Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Project.

Thanks & PAX

[niyad]

1. pace

[progressoid]

2. Rec!

Peace is constructed, not fought for.

[bahrbearian]

3. Mohammad Ali is my Hero

[valerief]

9. I could say Dick Cheney is mine

but that's just not right, not right at all.

[bahrbearian]

10. I don't get it , whats that suppose to mean?

Do you have a problem with Mohammad Ali?

[valerief]

12. No. Trying to make a funny. Mohammed Ali sacrificed his career to not

get his head blown off in war. It was a smart choice, and the right choice. Everyone who said no to the uniform made the right choice. Draft dodgers have always been brave, whatever their reasons. I was against the Vietnam "conflict" and sided with draft dodgers and antiwar protesters.

Then I thought of Cheney, a five time draft dodger. If I thought of him as my hero because he dodged the war, it would wrong, terribly wrong.

So, you see, you could have used Bill Clinton's name (another draft dodger) instead of Mohammed Ali's and I would have made the same joke.

Here are some famous Vietnam draft dodgers.
http://www.nndb.com/event/806/000140386/

[Vox Moi]

4. Thank you for an act of heroism

I am a Viet Nam era vet and I have had the same thoughts and the same trepidation about saying it out loud.
There is a big trap when talking about our troops. We love our sons and daughters in uniform but we can't let that spill over as a reason to justify or glorify the war they might be fighting.
Viet Nam and Iraq were disasters that could and should have been avoided.
Casting the troops who fought there as heroes who made a sacrifice does much to distract attention when the sacrifice was unnecessary.
A soldier who was stop-lossed for a fourth tour in Iraq is a person who volunteered for service and then was betrayed.
Putting soldiers in harm's way and then using 'Support our Troops' as a justification for the continuation of a war is beyond cynical.
Just once, I would like to see the President face the veterans on Veterans day and and admit to the mistakes that so many died for for and apologize in the name of a government that leveraged the finest traditions of service and love of country for something less than a clear and present danger.
This Veteran's Day let's remember that duty and honor are not commodities to be leveraged and that our values, our honor and our troops are too precious to use recklessly.

[bahrbearian]

11. Right On

[daleanime]

5. K&R....

[stage left]

6. K&R

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Thank you for this op-ed...

This paragraph especially resonated with me:

But many also thought that slavery and the subjugation of women would last forever, and they’re being proven wrong. We understand that while militarism will not disappear overnight, disappear it must if we are to avoid economic as well as moral bankruptcy.

So True.

PAX.

[valerief]

8. Agreed! The military, as it's used, only benefits the already very wealthy.

There's no pride in the uniform, and our culture should nurture shame, not respect, for it.

[johnnyreb]

13. Very well written.

Thank you, FairWinds! Kicked and Recommended.

[DevonRex]

14. Heroism comes in many forms. I value my father's service in WW2 and Korea.

He was a fighter pilot most of the time. Then he flew helicopters. Several different kinds for several different types of missions. One was rescue of downed fighter pilots in the seas off Korea. He also evacuated marines injured in battle or suffering from frostbite, etc.

He went to war when his country needed him. When we were attacked. He was called up again later. He took lives in the air. He saved lives in the air under heavy fire in brand new technology at the time. He was a hero. I'm glad he didnt resist militarism and the nation was, too. Some of us still remember those veterans on Veterans Day. I do. I won't let Veterans Day be hijacked by shame. I honor those veterans. I honor my father who died in 1982.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. I'll post here what I posted in your comment section on Kos:

As I noted there, I have published this short piece on DU and elsewhere on other Veterans' Days.

Veterans days always make me feel weird.

Especially when someone says "Thank you for your service." You see, I was an infantryman in Vietnam, but I did not serve willingly. I was drafted, forced into a deadly form of involuntary servitude, and whatever illusions I might originally have had about the rightness of the war were quickly torn from me when I saw what we were doing to the innocent people, the sacred soils, the beautiful waters and jungles and mountains of that tormented land.

"No, don't thank me," I want to say. "Forgive me. Forgive me for participating in that awful event in your name. If you must thank me for something, then thank me for joining the movement to stop the war when I got home. Maybe thank me for the things I have tried to do for the castoffs of society--the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the emotionally damaged products of chaotic and abusive homes who have gone on to fill our jails and prisons. But don't thank me for going off to participate in the destruction of a foreign land whose residents never intended any harm to you or me."

[chknltl]

16. I take exception to: "The real heroes are those who resist militarism."

First off I have KnRed this and bookmarked it as well. With the exception of the wording of a sentence I applaud what you say here. I especially like how you described the truth about Nam. As to my issue, I choose to believe that you are not downplaying the acts and deeds of heroism done by those who signed on the dotted line, nor the countless other acts of heroism performed by people worldwide. Your sentence "The real heroes are those who resist militarism.", suggests that all other forms of heroism are less than real. Thank you for this piece.

[FairWinds]

17. Thanks for all the comments . .

It's a good thing to have an honest exchange of views on these important issues.
I knew people in the military who resisted, and have to acknowledge that they were braver than I.
Had I the space, I would have expanded on the costs of militarism. The world wide empire of bases is little appreciated by our allies, and does not improve our security.
As we in Veterans for Peace are fond of saying, "Support the troops, bring them home!"

[JoeyT]

18. I don't know about hero,

because the word has become almost meaningless at this point anyway, but whether someone agrees or disagrees with your premise, it took a hell of a lot of courage to write that article and post this OP.

K&R