I'm sure some wars were and will be needed and righteous. I'm sure were those wars to present themselves, you'd see a rush at the recruiter's offices, instead of a drought.

In this day and age, though, I hope you understand by such a trade—your will to be a mindless weapon in the hands of a haywire hyperpower—you become an integral part of what the USA wreaks on other lands less fortunate civilized militarized than herself.

I hope you have been paying attention these last five years of war. I hope a turd-blossom-brained and drunken figurehead's flowery and vacuous speeches are a worthwhile trade for the rest of your days, because that's about what you'll get. Think Pat Tillman, think Alex Jiminez, think Tyler Hall, think Walter Reed, think "insufficient reimbursement", think extended tours with no opting out, think of taking the fall for your crooked superiors, think of no recognition, think Nuremburg-violating wars of oilthirst and global hegemony only possible with your uninformed bravado and irrepressible patriotism, think Disposable Hero.

There is a glaring contradiction in this country. We claim to understand how countries grow resentment when we create military bases and the culture that surrounds them in so many lands. We claim to deplore the death of children and innocents, and the inevitable horrors against humanity that go hand-in-hand with every war. We claim to fear and reject, even, the growing police and military powers within our own country. And yet, we help build it all! We tell our youth to join the military that makes it all possible, we pretend state-sponsored killing is a beautiful thing. We make it clear that every soldier is an angel, and all his murders righteous. We fill kids' heads with visions of patriotic sugar plums and they find out later that the plums are grenades lobbed by the men and women who send them out into foreign lands to die inglorious, inconsequental deaths that we fluff up and bugle to chase our own suburban, consumerist guilt away. When these grenades go off and destroy minds and lives—even of the wounded and still living—we turn away, or at best, throw an annual parade. They are the scars of our self-inflicted and voracious cycle, and we'd rather not discuss them too much. But we'll point to them proudly when we're drunk at the family reunion.

There is nothing noble in Iraq, and there never was. The USA has a world-sized hard-on, we need more lube for our mighty American Fucking Machine, and we pimp out the soldiers to bring it home. If you get slapped around in the meanwhile, oh well. That's your job, honey.

Think for yourself. Peace cannot be created with bombs and uranium and lies. We must speak it, live it, and provide it for others. We must stop being King of the Heap, and level the heap and make it a garden. We must care about the pain and suffering of other peoples, not use them for our own ends.

If we continue to foist violence upon the rest of the world, we will drown in it ourselves. No matter how many of our children we brainwash and send to die for our comfort.

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PT 1.
PT. 2