What U.S. Soldiers are Really Fighting to Protect

One of the biggest myths in the U.S. today is that American soldiers are brave and heroic because they are fighting to protect our rights as citizens. It literally blows my mind that people still believe this, especially after all the Occupy protesters that have been brutalized and arrested for exercising those rights here recently.

What U.S. soldiers are really fighting for, whether they know this or not, and whether they want to believe it or not, is America's greedy capitalist stake in other countries like Iraq, for example. I mean, it's simple math. How much is spent in the U.S. on things like education, health care, and other programs that ensure my rights as a citizen, and how much is spent on the war machine? According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Global sales of arms and military services by the 100 largest defense contractors increased in 2010 to $411.1 billion. I think that spells it out pretty clearly.

In that same report, out of 100 global companies that are profiting from the war, 44 of them are U.S. companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. I don't see anything heroic about this.

In a recent article I wrote that can be found here, I expound on reasons why I do not support our U.S. troops. Not surprisingly, I received a lot of backlash that I was quite ready for. It was frustrating, however, reading comment after comment on people who have been brainwashed to believe that this war was something heroic and noble--that the U.S. intervened as a good Samaritan of some sort. It seemed like, to me, very similar to the propaganda used in Nazi Germany. They thought they were doing something to protect their rights. They thought they were doing something noble. We all know now how wrong they were.

It's no secret that fear has been used quite effectively in the past to garner sympathy and support for causes that were less than ethical. Could it be possible that this is happening now? It certainly is not impossible.

The picture above is a more realistic illustration of exactly who our U.S. soldiers are fighting for. They aren't fighting for me, a plain 'ole ordinary citizen. Compared to those rich CEO's, I have no rights. I have no healthcare, which is a basic human right in any civilization. Because of my views on the war I am considered a terrorist, I cannot demonstrate peacefully with the Occupy movement without realizing that I will most likely end up in jail if I do. I can't even count on a free college education, which is another basic human right. Where are the rights that all you U.S. soldiers are supposedly defending?

Additionally, if I don't pay my taxes, like many U.S. banks and corporations have been doing for years, I will go to jail. Not some cushy, white collar jail, like Madoff finds himself in, but a penitentiary, where I will most likely be raped and/or killed. But hey, at least then I would have health care, right? I always try to see the silver lining.

The video above nicely explains what is really at stake here. It's not our rights. It's never been our rights. It's greedy corporations' profits that are at stake. This is the cause of war, plain and simple. And all of you U.S. soldiers that have bought into the ideal that fighting for "your country" is noble, have been lied to. You aren't fighting for your country, you are only fighting for a select few of the elite. It's a hard pill to swallow, but the sooner American citizens do, the sooner we can start to find solutions to problems instead of thinking invading a country will solve everything.

This might hurt. It might even kill you inside to realize that wars are big business. If you are a U.S. soldier, you might know this. many citizens know this but there are many more that either don't know this, or refuse to accept it.

I am quite frankly insulted any time I hear someone tell me how I should thank a U.S. soldier for the life I am able to live now. The only people that owe U.S. soldiers thanks are the rich. Not me. Not anyone like me. You get no thanks from me. You didn't go over to Iraq or any other country to defend my freedoms. Repeating it like a mantra will not making any more truthful.

And while people like me really do live in fear, not because of terrorists that FOX News tries to sell, but in fear of my own country for what they can do to "unpatriotic" people like me, you patriots can sleep soundly at night, even if it is lies that lull you to sleep.

Ten Companies Profiting Most From War