ONCE POWERFUL, NOW CARICATURES
MISINFORMED, UNINFORMED & TAME
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Once we were lions, at the ready, Germany, Korea or 30,000 feet above the Arctic in B-52s, ready to obliterate anything that threatened the United States. Generation after generation fought wars, world, regional or wasting conflicts like Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Now we watch our land being sold and 5 veterans show up. We have veterans illegally imprisoned for standing up for us and none of us stand up for them. A majority of veterans will vote for the biggest "vet hating" president in our history and join organizations, from the NRA to American Legion, that pretend to represent our needs but, at a national level, are little more than a rubber stamp for the class society that sees us as trash.
When we stopped standing up for ourselves and sent professional lobbyists to Washington what did we expect? We changed. Our teeth disappeared. Our mane was shed. Our roar was stifled. We became sheep. Sheep have two things coming, shearing and and, eventually, that long circular ride on the Doner Kabob.
VETS AND US FOREIGN POLICY
Why, in the name of God, would veterans groups have NO voice in foreign policy decisions? We fight the wars, in fact, we are the only Americans that have paid anything at all. When America chooses to go to war based on lies and thievery, we are the ones who pay the bill.
As it is now, if "leaders," anyone who can wave a flag and lie, tell the sheep to follow, no matter where or why, we ask nothing. When we find our ignorance has led us to slaughter, we stay quiet, do what we are told and wait for the next lie to come. We fight and are forgotten, now even before the wars end.
Any idiot can fool veterans. All you have to do is grab a flag and yell, "Socialism" and veterans will give up any freedom and even turn on each other. If you wondered why veterans are never asked when America plays "world cop" for fun and profit, you need think no more about it.
UNINFORMED, MISINFORMED, DISINFRANCHISED
Slicksters in Washington know who vets are. They are folks you drag out on a couple of holidays a year or idiots you lie to every election, visiting conventions and making speeches read off teleprompters full of empty promises. Politicans depend on few things in life. Veterans will vote Republican, even if betrayed so obviously that no rational person could miss it.
Democrats know they need veterans votes and will fund veteran entitlement programs dismantled by Republicans but will never care enough to reform the system perpetuated for the benefit of a "special interest" groups controlled by organizations linked to "big business."
Years ago, veterans groups were organized to keep America isolationist, fight trade unions and prevent a communist takeover of America. All of this was as wrong then as it is now. Unions protected workers, isolationism brought on WW2 and we were never threatened with communism. How did veterans groups get it so wrong?
Simple. Their leaders were paid off by the wealthy, the powerful greedy bastards that wanted most Americans to live as slaves. Little has changed. This is real American history, learn it so you can stop repeating it. The rich and powerful love convincing the people they control that they don’t exist and anyone who says different is a "socialist." They have been doing this for a very long time, since the writing of our Constitution which created a republic more than a bit short on democracy.
IGNORANCE BREEDS HATE, HATE BREEDS FEAR AND FEAR IS STUPID
Today’s military isn’t white or male anymore. Its a bit on the brown side, often has something of an accent and, increasingly, depends on women for key roles, even in combat units. Yet veterans organizations are white, male and aggressively "Aryan" in orientation.
Any American of color or ethnicity will tell you that race hate is alive and well in America. They live with it every day. Lying about it doesn’t help.
Those of us who grew up in cities, were raised to stick to "our side of town." Most veterans organizations were and continue to be a breeding ground for racial prejudice and fear. Lying about a truth all of us know very well is shameful.
There are continual reports of race hate and race prejudice in veterans groups. This is so pervasive and the problems are so widespread and severe that they are overwhelming. I will be amazed when national leadership of a group or two calls me. I will ask them how many integrated posts they have?
They will hang up the phone.
Race hate and fear is publicly illegal in the US, much of the US at least. In many veterans posts, the word "person of color" is used more often than hello. This is a symptom, not a problem. Its a symptom of dumb. Anyone dumb enough to hate people because of color will follow people because of lies.
DIVIDED WE FELL, AGE, RACE, POLITICS
Folks from the military have always ribbed guys, and now gals, from other services or other wars. In the same service, every specialty has its own identity and pride. We started the game, divided. What seemed so innocent, service rivalries, has now bitten us on our behinds bigtime.
Current vets are taught earlier vets were losers. This is being done to "build them up" but, in reality, it isolates them from the people who could help them most and advise them.
Older vets see troops serving now as "Playstation addicts" who are overpaid, overfed and babied. Is it true? How can any of us know with a military that lives in total secret. Has anyone noticed that? Aren’t we supposed to be glad troops are fed and treated well?
Politics is the most divisive area. Veterans politics are seldom discussed. They are only screamed. Every discussion is predicated on one group being "buzzed up" with misinformation meant to secure slavish compliance or irrational anger and the other group sickened by the ignorance and unreality of the less educated vets.
Every vet believes they are part of the "good" group and the others are total fools. In the process, we have become powerless and, in fact, a joke.
When you add to this, the rivalries between veterans and retirees, competing against each other for benefits, often working to limit fund for each other rather than standing along side one another and the officers groups, the division becomes hopeless.
America’s feudal military system builds its leaders out of the best people it can find. Sometimes these are great leaders but too often they are the misfits, the delusional and the "less than bright" who are heavily indoctrinated into the belief they are above mankind.
The intellectually advanced and creative thinkers among our officers are driven totally crazy, surrounded by morons, hacks and political suck-ups. A bigger problem is that all officers believe they are part of the first group but are actually part of the second. Thus, we used the term "deluded."
Too many folks who are fooled into thinking of themselves as "miltiary professionals" later wake up finding themselves as screwed as everyone else.
MILITARY SERVICE: POOR EXCUSE FOR BELONGING TO ANYTHING
In a perfect world, ok, even a much less than perfect world, military service, with its loss of human rights, regimentation, punishing lifestyle and dangers is not the best way to live. If more admitted it, serving in the military is not the most intelligent thing some of us have done.
Think of it as getting an embarassing tattoo.
When you wake up and ask yourself, "What was I thinking," its too late. Our lives are filled with mistakes and for most people, military service was a mistake, sometimes not a voluntary one.
Is being a veteran a mistake? Many think so. Many who serve never join anything, avoid VA health care as long as possible and are never seen again as anything related to "military" or "veteran."
Maybe this is how it should be and would be if irresponsbility of our leaders didn’t leave so many mentally and physically crippled.
NOTHING IN COMMON
With the majority of veterans belonging to groups based on social needs only, looking these groups for activist leadership is insane.
People should be able to join motorcycle clubs and meet with friends. We have too many isolated people already.
Similarly, looking to these groups for guidance in political, medical or other areas, is also idiotic. Veterans have no defined voice nor do they have a real identity. Our veterans groups too often operate of rumor, half truth or outright lies.
Our infamously slow "learning curve" has cost us thousands of lives, Agent Orange, GWI, radiation, PTSD, TBI and so much more.
We pretend otherwise but know in our hearts this is true.
We fell apart, many years ago, because we looked for different things in different places. We are black, we are white, we are union, we are anti-union, we are everything America is and pretending that we should all think the same and care about the same things is not working.
We could just agree on one thing.
We could care about each other.
We could stick by each other.
This would be a nice change.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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