Mantiq al-Tayr
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Your article is so on target and so filled with great quotes it is hard to select just one. However, this one will do:

You wrote: “Every mature person knows this on some level, but we’re not permitted to say so in polite company. And our good intentions are used against us, to shame critics of US military aggression into silence in essentially the same way supporters of Colin Kaepernick are shamed into silence. We know that the thousands of soldiers who have died in America’s recent military invasions left behind families, friends and loved ones, and so many of us have entered into this silent agreement not to speak the truth that they died for nothing but the mundane greed and power hunger of a few oligarchs because we don’t want to hurt their feelings. But in our silence we permit the war machine to keep advancing the lie that America uses its military to defend freedom, justice and democracy, which in turn allows it to throw the lives of other people’s sons and daughters into its gears as its depraved bloodbaths march on.”

This is 100% in line with my own personal/professional experiences dealing with members of the US military. Many terrific young men and women are living lives that are inauthentic — many of them know this — but they find themselves mired in the quicksand that is US foreign policy mixed with an equal measure of our declining economy. Without all the flag waving and the talk of becoming a martyr — “making the ultimate sacrifice” is the term they use — they and we would have to acknowledge that they have become mercenaries without a cause.

Thanks for doing what you are doing.

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    Mantiq al-Tayr

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