In Defense of Gordon Duff

I think we are all missing the point here with all the anti-Gordon invective.  By his own admission, Gordon is a "bomb thrower", a radical, a muckracker, a yellow journal writer, an investigative opinionator….in a word…a troublemaker.  That serves a very sound purpose.  He shakes things up.  He challenges the status quo.  He says, "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"  He is exactly what we need.  Exactly.  He trusts no one.  He challenges everything.  He takes nothing at face value.  He sees enemies everywhere.  You know what?  WE HAVE ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!

Why?  Because we are so goddamned expensive.  We cost billions and billions of dollars each year.  If we were all gone, if our properties were all taken, if our pensions were stopped, if we simply did not breathe anymore, the political parties would have billions and billions of dollars at their disposal every year to consolidate their hold on all of us even more.  Presently less than 1% of the population controls over 23% of the overall wealth.  That last sentence should give you pause.

You have to understand something.  American politics is not like European politics or politics anywhere else on the planet. It does not grow out of ancient animosities between the landed gentry and the serfs, like it did and does in Britain.  It does not grow out of an uncomfortable accomodation between the church and the merchant class as it does in Ireland.  It does not grow out of the need for the central government to feed the masses like it does in China.  It does not grow out of a cultural xenophobia between the Slavs and the non-Slavs as it does in Russia.  No.  American politics is a direct outgrowth of the merchant classes forever and continually expanding their power over more and more facets of American life.  In short, BOTH of our political parties in this country are run by elites and the families of elites that are arranged in dynasties that control the economy.  Political parties are simply fronts for various groups of right and left thinking elites that want more control. 

Gordon knows this.  He writes about it continually through all of its facets and all of its ugliness.  Do you REALLY think that we would be allowed to siphon off all of this money if the elites thought for one minute that they could get away without paying us?  Do you REALLY think they pay us out of some sense of national obligation to "fallen heroes"?  Are you nuts?  They pay us out of fear.  They don’t want armed insurrection.  They want a stable society to grow their business interests and so that there will not be armed violence from former soldiers and sailors dying in poverty.  Do you honestly believe that there are 22.9 million veterans in America in the summer of 2009 because that just happened?  We were set up you numbskulls.  We were set up to go to war after war, battle after battle, police action after police action, international incident after incident to protect the business interests of the elites that run this country and control its wealth.  Are you REALLY that dumb?

We live now as veterans in the Armed Forces of the American Empire.  A blind man could see that.  Gordon sees it everyday.  He writes as one of us who is enraged because he sees the things that he does.  He is not shortsighted.  He is much too far sighted for his own good.  It hurts him.

We have no choice but to constantly play the political card if we are going to get what we want.  Saying things like "veterans should never be partisan" is to talk and think like a four year old.  We have no choice.  It is the only game in town.  We must constantly play the ends against the middle to get what we need.  That is life in America.  It is just how this game is played.

I don’t care what Gordon says.  I don’t care if we agree with him or not.  He is absolutely essential to our interests.  Don’t think for a minute that playing nice with the government will get us anything but another empty "thank you."  I want more resources spent on us.  The government can keep the thank you.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)