Freedom Granted, Freedom Won (Best blog post I've read in months)

[brainshrub]

Freedom Granted, Freedom Won

Surf any site where endless war and nationalist frenzy are celebrated, and chances are good that you'll bump into this:

It is the Soldier not the reporter, who has given us Freedom of the press. It is the Soldier not the poet, who has given us Freedom of speech. It is the Soldier not the campus organizer, who has given us the Freedom to demonstrate. It is the Soldier not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, who salutes the Flag, who serves beneath the Flag and whose coffin is draped by the Flag, who allows the protester to burn the Flag.

Columns of drums beat as a solemn white male voice -- Bruce Willis? -- recites each line, indicting those who fail to fall to their knees at the sight of a camo-painted Hummer, or the image of George Bush in his flight suit, or a cluster bomb cleansing some Haji-infected neighborhood.

Pretty stirring stuff. Gets the wood nice & stiff. Only thing is, it's bullshit.

<snip>

The notion that the "Soldier not the reporter" gave us freedom of the press, and the "Soldier not the poet" gave us free speech, while reassuring, is mostly wrong. Actually, war, the threat of war, and post-war periods often deliver the opposite of free press and speech. You can start with the post-Revolutionary period and find numerous violations of freedom of the press and speech, mostly notably in the Federalist-supported Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which essentially made it illegal to criticize the president (John Adams), the possibility of war with France (desired by Alexander Hamilton) being a motivating factor. Continue through the 19th century and you'll find writers, speakers and activists, primarily those who advocated for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery, harassed and shut up via various sedition and criminal conspiracy laws. Neither the Mexican War of 1846-48, nor the Civil War of the 1860s, ensured, protected or expanded free speech and a free press. Those rights were fought for and largely won by the writers and poets themselves, oftentimes in the face of mob violence (as was the case with Mexican War dissidents). The grabbing of Mexican territory and the smashing of the Confederacy had more to do with strengthening and consolidating Federal power (while enriching those with the right connections) than with clearing the path for unfettered discourse.

<snip>

Soldiers, by and large, are tools used to advance the interests of those who own and run the country. They are lied to, conned and conditioned to believe they are fighting for "freedom" when in most cases they are killing, dying and being maimed to enrich domestic elites and their allies/business partners. This is a big hard truth to swallow, which is why a lot of military personnel, and many vets, prefer the standard story. Recently, I caught on radio a reporter just back from Iraq, and he addressed this very issue. Many of the soldiers he spoke to were upset that what was said to them by recruiters and officers did not hold up in Iraq. The con job was cracking. But instead of exploring why this was so, many of these disgruntled soldiers further retreated into a black & white world, where they are on the side of Good and anyone opposing them is Bad. This is understandable on a basic human level -- nobody likes to be lied to or made a chump. But it's also dishonest and potentially destructive, both to the soldier and the society at large. The Soldier Mantra cited above is an authoritarian appeal and an intellectual and historical dodge. You don't honor the troops by reducing them to stereotypes, however seemingly attractive.

Read the entire post here:
http://redstateson.blogspot.com/2006/01/freedom-granted-freedom-won.html

[ixion]

1. here here

kicked and recommended.

:applause:

[northzax]

2. there are many decent and honorable soldiers

and the US has been very lucky to have a system in which the military has never gained power or been used widely to keep order and quash dissention. But no sitting army has ever fought for more rights for the citizens of it's own country. It was the activists who killed Aparthied in South Africa, it was the activists who dies in the Gulags of the Soviet Union, it was the activists who won women the right to vote, it was the activists who ended Jim Crow, it was a union organizers that ended communism in Poland. Shall I continue?

[brainshrub]

4. Yes, please do!

I'll help!

It was the activists who fought to keep the govts feet to the fire so that we would have clean air and water. Without the environmentalist activists, we would all be sucking smog by now.

[Raster]

3. MUST READ!!! Kicked and recommended!

"Soldiers, by and large, are tools used to advance the interests of those who own and run the country. They are lied to, conned and conditioned to believe they are fighting for "freedom" when in most cases they are killing, dying and being maimed to enrich domestic elites and their allies/business partners." There is no clearer example of the big lie than the war in Iraq. There is nothing that the bush* administration used to sell this conflict that holds water. Absolutely nothing. Hell, the reason(s) for Iraq have become like the entre du jour, changing daily. The tragic fact is that the American military has been grossly damaged by bushco* and its conflicts of vanity, arrogance and greed. And the book is still being written. You and I and our children will pay for many many years for bushco* and its imperial reachings. We have all been conned in the worst way imaginable by American faux aristocracy that seeks to enrich their purses and exploit their stations.

[applegrove]

5. The tools the US soldiers were given by Bushco - were a wing & a

prayer. I'd be angry too.