Memorial Daze: Quandary of Empire

[laststeamtrain]

Memorial Daze: Quandary of Empire

By Philip A Ferruggio
May 29, 2010


Hitler’s German army invaded and occupied Poland. Many soldiers were killed. The Japanese invaded and occupied Nanking and Shanghai. They had many soldiers killed. The same for the British when they occupied India and Palestine.

The local populations did not wish to be occupied by foreigners, especially ones with loaded guns pointed at their faces.

The Indians of the plains did not take well to our cavalry and forts. Many of the young U.S. troops were slaughtered at Little Big Horn, because they were seen as invaders.

The people of Germany, Japan, Britain and the United States mourned those soldiers killed while occupying foreign soil, and rightly so. Yet, to honor them does an injustice to the victims of their occupation.

Why? Well, in all the above instances, those nations illegally occupied the countries and territories mentioned. So, to honor a soldier that is used for such heinous acts is an injustice to both the memory of him and the memory of the victims of such assaults.

I find it strange that, now, in 2010, my town (and countless others) has decided to construct a Veterans Memorial in our city center. What they are doing is to take those who fought for defense of our nation in World War II and bundle them with those who were used to extend the U.S. empire in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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http://consortiumnews.com/2010/052910a.html

[Dr.Phool]

1. Smedley Butler had it right.

"I was a gangster for big business".

I cringe every time I hear, "They're fighting for our freedom". No, we're fighting to expand an empire and steal their natural resources.

I helped "protect" us from a civil war being waged in Vietnam.

[yurbud]

2. it's not to hard to make that case even for World War II.

We were just lucky that Nazi propaganda about themselves and our propaganda about them worked together so well to create the perfect comic book villain.

[Chef Eric]

3. What planet are you from? Are you even remotely aware of 20th century history?

Our propaganda had nothing to do with the Nazis' villainy. They murdered millions of Jews, socialists, intellectuals, and homosexuals, and our propaganda didn't have the slightest thing to do with it.

And we weren't "lucky" to have had such a "perfect comic book villain." We were cursed.

And by the way, we didn't enter WWII to expand our empire. We entered the war because we were attacked.

[yurbud]

4. how high a priority was liberating the concentration camps? Why did we go to war with

Germany before the Nazis?

Do you think it was for entirely different reasons or mostly similar ones?

I didn't say the Nazis weren't bad guys, only that that was not at the top of our list of reasons for going to war with them.

[Chef Eric]

5. Don't change the subject. You said that our propaganda helped to create "the perfect villain."

Those were your exact words. That is offensive, and it is complete bullshit. Our propaganda had nothing to do with who the Nazis were, and what they did to their victims.

[yurbud]

6. you don't know the history of propaganda. Nazis definitely did very bad things

which made it easier to demonize them.

Those bad things they did were also a way to ''sell'' themselves to the public, the way the GOP does by scapegoating blacks, Latinos, Muslims, gays, intellectuals, and most of the groups Hitler didn't like.

Those things were secondary to their goals of territorial expansion. If they stayed within their borders, we would have ignored what they did to their own people the way we did Franco in Spain.