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Thank You for Your Service

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When people risk their lives, saying thanks is the least we can do.

But it’s not enough.

Today on Veterans’ Day, we honor those who have served and are serving in the military.

The holiday was once Armistice Day, marking the peace agreement that concluded World War I at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. That’s where the phrase “the eleventh hour” comes from. It’s also why the holiday has remained on whatever day Nov. 11 falls — not the closest Monday to provide non-military government workers another three-day weekend.

Of course, Woodrow Wilson’s “war to end all wars” didn’t end warfare. Numerous wars have followed. Today, the president goes to war whenever he feels like it, not only without a declaration, without any authorization — or even discussion — by Congress.

So, here’s what I think we owe veterans:

A federal government that keeps its word.

The Veterans Administration’s continued failure to adequately care for returning soldiers is unacceptable. Until the VA is fixed, don’t vote for any incumbent.

Don’t let our uniformed sons and daughters be shipped off to any conflict where (a) our freedoms are not directly threatened, and (b) where there’s no sane plan to end the conflict and bring our troops home.

Don’t trust politicians.

From the sinking of the Maine (Spanish-American War) and the Lusitania (WWI) to the Gulf of Tonkin incident (Vietnam) and the faulty intelligence that greased the path into the Iraq Conquest, distrust is rational, almost a duty.

Disagree over foreign policy? Over whether to go to war or not? Sure, but we cannot leave these decisions to an insulated cabal of politicians. Deinsulate them. Speak your mind.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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9 replies on “Thank You for Your Service”

Please name one single war since the American Revolution that we entered without our politicians lying to us.  Even the War of 1812 was started in an effort to annex Canada.

The Mexican-American War allowed us to steal half of Mexico and to annex it to our territories.

Our unnecessary and illegal War of Northern aggression may have “saved the Union,” but caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and allowed our country to grow into the world’s most powerful aggressor.  It was an unnecessary war.  Our slaves could have been freed by our government’s buying them from their “owners,” just as other countries had done.  Lincoln expressed more than once that he had no desire to free the slaves.

World War II was begun by our embargo of oil entering Japan, not by the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  And the bombing of the ships in Pearl Harbor was arranged by FDR himself in order to start the shooting part of the war.  His “Day of Infamy” speech was ready and waiting for delivery well before the bombing.  These facts are now well-documented.

Name one war since World War II which was begun with a constitutional declaration of war from Congress expressing the desire of our citizens to enter war.

And how could you have omitted the conflicts with  Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Panama, Honduras, the slaughter of native Americans and so many other atrocities in which our military participated?

It was not faulty intelligence that “that greased the path into the Iraq Conquest,” but lies vomited on us by Bush/Cheney et al, despite intelligence actually telling them that were were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  According to General Wesley Clark our country had intended to start wars with and conquer five Middle Eastern and African countries starting with Afghanistan and ending with Iran.  And how can you forget the Downing Street memo which proves that WMD had nothing to do with our invasion of Iraq?

Our military has never fought to defend us.  We, almost from the beginning of our history, have been the aggressors, killers of the innocent, because of our lying rulers.  The reason we have so many veterans we are commanded to thank is because we have had so many wars and have been the greatest imperialists in the history of the world. I am one of those veterans, drafted by our government.

From Laurence Vance in today’s LewRockwell.com:

‘According to Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock, the United States “has invaded or fought in eighty-four out of 194 countries” and “has had some form of military involvement with a spectacular 191 out of 194.” Their findings are published in the appropriately titled America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with Almost Every Country on Earth.’
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/11/laurence-m-vance/america-invader/.

You don’t live in America, do you? The hatred and venom you spew is hardly worth the effort to refute it all. But since you seem to be a fan of the murderous Imperial Japanese, the islamic jihadists, the Soviet and probably Chinese communist purveyors of genocide counted in the tens of millions, I am surprised you don’t sing the praises of the British who committed atrocities all over the world long before we came of age as a country. Never mind how mach the native Americans used to slaughter each other, as if they were the first people to occupy the territories we now all share.

The Mexican War statement really is appalling, as Mexico never would have lost Texas, let alone the rest of the southwest, had they not been the most ruthless rulers over their own people and those that chose to live in areas that were once part of Mexico. They couldn’t stand not abusing the people in Texas, failed to honor every promise for equal treatment, slaughtered the Texans of San Antonio and Goliad without mercy, then got their butts kicked. They then consistently violated the treaty they signed, continued to violently harass Americans in the territory they forfeited by their own cruel actions, and earned the whipping we gave them in 1848. They ought to be thanking us every day for letting them have everything from Mexico City to the current border. We owned it all in 1848, gave them back more than they deserved and PAID them from the rest. Ever since, Mexico has been invading us one way or another, in the 19th Century, to the Pancho Villa raids of the early 20th, to the 25-30 million who have come illegally into the US of today. And you have the nerve to say we stole from them. You are one piece of work.

So the only inconsistency you have is in the American Revolution. Based on your standards, our “politicians” lied to us all throughout that one too. What more historic piece of propaganda is there than the Boston Tea Party event. Why, if you hate America so much, do you live here? Get the hell out!

Paul, did you have to tarnish your tribute to veterans with your isolationist political views? God bless our veterans, the majority of which would do it all over again be it WWII or Iraq. The Maine disaster, was pushed in no small part by the propagandist media, at least as much as the politicians. The Lusitania, carrying armaments or not, actually was sunk by the Germans and was an act of war against the U.S. ether way. And may I remind the readers that the “war to end all wars” had been raging for years before we finally went in and put an end to the slaughter, even at great cost. No fan of Woodrow Wilson here, but he arguably ruined far more American lives with his domestic policies than in WWI. And I am sick and tired of people using the issue of WMD intelligence as if the was the only reason we went into Iraq. That’s revisionist history which would take too much space here to refute. But let me just ask: is the 550 Metric Tons of yellowcake uranium that we found and secretly removed from Iraq before announcing it- is that not enough? What about the large decaying stores of old Desert Storm vintage chemicals that recently were reported as being in danger of capture by ISIS not enough for you? Did we find all we- we and all the rest of the world- believed was there? Maybe not, credit due to Saddam’s brilliant disinformation program which was incredibly effective. But we found plenty. If the Republican party voters could hang together like the Democrats do, we would never have had BHO in office and Iraq would be the success story it was becoming instead of turning into a vacuum for the once devastated al Qaeda in Iraq to recreate itself into ISIS. That’s not the fault of the Iraq war, it’s the faulty strategy of not carrying a victory through to the end. Go ask the survivors of the tens of thousands of individuals and families that ISIS has butchered if they are glad we left Iraq. Go ask the survivors of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were slaughtered by Saddam Hussein and his sons if they wish we had never come. And go ask the amazing and unimaginably brave veterans of Iraq, not only how they feel about all they accomplished, and how much of it has been thrown away in 7 years, but how fast they would go back there if they had a leader in the White House again? God bless all who served.

America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS: 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881

In addition, you say, “If the Republican party voters could hang together like the Democrats do, we would never have had BHO in office and Iraq would be the success story it was becoming instead of turning into a vacuum for the once devastated al Qaeda in Iraq to recreate itself into ISIS.”

Dick Cheney: The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.
 http://www.azquotes.com/author/2780-Dick_Cheney

Dick Cheney:” My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . [in] weeks rather than months.”
 http://www.azquotes.com/quote/597823

Nuff said!

My my, a Harvard professor’s writings are what you have for me? To take that stuff at face value, the amount of medication and/or natural state of delusion required is beyond measure. That article is so full of half-truths and propaganda it’s laughable. But upon reading your post above mine, I can’t imagine that there is a conspiracy theory you don’t believe in wholeheartedly. I think your meds need refreshing, but in the meantime, just in case you want to see a bit of reality, try this: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-secretly-takes-yellowcake-from-iraq/

Obviously, there is a great deal more that can be said about all of the issues raised than I can explain in under 300 words. But my goal was to urge folks to do more than simply say thanks occasionally, but to get engaged in making sure our country takes the right course — whatever course you believe that is — so that those who risk their lives do not ever do so in vain.

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