[Peace-discuss] tie a yaller ribbon...

["E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"]

U.S. soldiers died unnecessarily, duped, in vain, and for a lie – all 
4,500 that died in Iraq and all 1,800 that died in Afghanistan. Every 
death was senseless. The blood of one American soldier was not worth any 
"good" or any "benefit" in Iraq or Afghanistan that has resulted from 
these wars.

Support Our Troops?
by Laurence M. Vance
http://lewrockwell.com/vance/vance264.html

In the last ten years, with only a minuscule number of resistors, U.S. 
soldiers have put boots on the ground – and bombed, droned, maimed, and 
killed countless thousands of people – in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, 
Pakistan, Somalia, and Libya. Over 1 million soldiers have "served" in 
Iraq. Although President Obama has announced that U.S. troops will leave 
Iraq by the end of the year, he has also said that some will be sent to 
Uganda in search of monsters to destroy. And then there are the other 
140 countries being occupied by U.S. troops.

I have seen signs expressing support for the troops in front of all 
manner of businesses, including self-storage units, bike shops, and dog 
grooming. I have heard accounts of restaurants like Taco Bell and retail 
stores like Sears asking for donations for the military as a show of 
support for the troops.

It doesn’t seem to matter to most Americans how many wars the troops are 
involved in, how senseless the war the troops are fighting, how many 
lies the war is based on that the troops are fighting, how many 
countries the United States has troops in, how many foreign bases the 
United States has troops on, how many billions the United States spends 
on the troops, how many foreign civilians are injured, maimed, or killed 
by U.S. troops, or even how many U.S. troops die in vain. It doesn’t 
seem to matter what U.S. troops do, where they do it, and to whom to do 
it to.

None of this seems to matter to American Christians either. 
Nevertheless, the last place I would expect to see something about 
supporting the troops is in a church bulletin. I must have severely 
underestimated the extent of the military fetish that some Christians 
have because I recently came across a church bulletin from an 
evangelical church with a whole page devoted to supporting the troops. 
Thank God I did not have the misfortune of having to attend the church 
to get a copy of their bulletin.

Here is the page of the church bulletin in question, verbatim, atrocious 
formatting and all. I have only removed the names that are mentioned.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

     We still need items to send to our adopted unit.
     They are requesting the following items

     Nuts - peanuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds,Chips
     movies DVD, Music CDs - Country, Pop
     socks for boots, footie/running socks
     candy-red vines, jawbreakers, twizzlers, jellybeans, hard candy, pep-
     permint
     Dunkin Dounuts coffee, creamer,
     Hand sanitizer, hand lotion
     microwave popcorn
     Individual packs of drink mix for water bottles
     crackers, cheese, peanut butter, chocolate M&Ms
     power bars,,snickers marathon energy bars
     trail mix, granola bars
     hot choclate
     blistex chap stick,
     mini flashlights
     Life savers, Pretzels
     Beef jerky
     Cards, letters, pictures and holiday appropriate items.

     We will be sending Leaves of Thanksgiving to our soldiers. Please
     take a minute to fill one out letting them know how thankful you are
     for them, their service & their sacrifice. A BIG
     Thank you to ____ ____ for creating the leaves.

     Also, we are collecting non-breakable Christmas ornaments to send
     to our troops, please bring them by next Sunday if you’d like to 
participate.

     If you’d like to contribute to the boxes we’ll be delivering for the
     troops , please see the list in the church foyer. We are trying to get
     Thanksgiving & Christmas items to them in enough time for them to
     enjoy them.

     Thank you to Pastor ____ for mailing 12 boxes at the Post Office this
     week

I have only four brief things to say about this.

To begin with, the church should be ashamed of the horrible job of 
typing and formatting that went into their bulletin. There is absolutely 
no excuse for this.

Secondly, as I have typed on my keyboard until my fingers were numb, 
U.S. troops don’t defend our freedoms, and neither do they fight "over 
there" so we don’t have to fight "over here." U.S. soldiers died 
unnecessarily, duped, in vain, and for a lie – all 4,500 that died in 
Iraq and all 1,800 that died in Afghanistan. Every death was senseless. 
The blood of one American soldier was not worth any "good" or any 
"benefit" in Iraq or Afghanistan that has resulted from these wars. And 
I am the one who has been called un-American and worse. Go figure.

Thirdly, why should anyone support U.S. troops fighting in unjust, 
immoral wars? It is our troops that have invaded and occupied foreign 
countries. It is our troops that have dropped the bombs, thrown the 
grenades, launched the missiles, fired the mortars, and shot the bullets 
that have resulted in the maiming and killing of hundreds of thousands 
of people that were no threat to the United States. Should the 
politicians, the president, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff, and the congressmen that fund unconstitutional wars receive a 
share of the blame? Of course they should. But how could any Christian 
write a thank-you note to soldiers he doesn’t even know that are 
invaders and occupiers engaged in these things?

And finally, what is the cause of churches adopting a unit, sending 
things to soldiers, thanking the troops, and polluting their church 
bulletins with such nonsense? The answer is two-fold. One, colossal 
ignorance of the U.S. government, U.S. foreign policy, American history, 
and the Bible. And two, holding erroneous opinions like these:

     * The Republican Party is the party of God.
     * A theological conservative should be a political conservative.
     * Opposition to war and militarism is an exclusively left-wing idea.
     * The American state is a divine institution.
     * The U.S. military defends our freedoms.

Support our troops? Why would any church even think of such a thing?

November 1, 2011