According to my country I was not good enough to become educated, but I was still smart enough to learn how to kill for the educated people. Our military is facing a very different kind of war zone than the ones we think of when seeing the vision given to us by Hollywood.
People join the military for a variety of reasons. Some honestly do not believe that they do not have any other options, and I can attest that regardless of how I feel about a lot of my life I can still say that I believe that the experiences I gained there were very important for my growth. I can still say that those types of experiences can go along way towards teaching people about the realities that we don't want to look at. I can not however honestly say that those experiences are best for everyone. Some people regardless of income honestly should not be involved in that kind of environment.
The definition of the modern military changes so rapidly that our world can not keep up with it. More and more the need to die in our military becomes less and less. It is important to say here that the need to kill is not going down at the same rate. We as Americans are safer in the battlefields overall than any other soldier in the world, and our equipment gives our soldiers a decisive edge. When we can give our death toll in these low numbers the common person would believe that we are “winning”. I am not saying that we’re not winning. I am saying that I don't know what winning is. What is winning?
As I understand it to win one has to have a goal. The stated goal is world democracy, and the current slogan is “America wins when America leads”. Again I have to ask what I win. I, me, we, us.
The answer I am being told is “world peace”.
Currently in the world we live in we have “democratic” governments all over the world who were elected with the destruction of America or at the least one of our allies as a public announcement or goal. I honestly don't believe that the people of each of these coun
tries want us destroyed but for whatever reason they have chosen their leaders and given them the power. That power makes our chosen leaders who we do not always agree with very nervous.
I think it is an awesome coincidence that in our war on terror we only hit two countries. Maybe we’re just lucky. Maybe our government does not have a plan.
I have watched TV my whole life and only in the last week have I seen government sponsored commercials for the United States Border Patrol. This could easily be described as people desiring our way of life. Of all the things he said that were NOT true in the State of the Union, we can agree that many of these immigrants are willing to do the work that we the people WON’T DO.
Is the legacy of democracy to be that it elevates us beyond the need to do labor? If that is the case what do we do when all governments are Democratic? Once we have gotten everybody on the same sheet of music in that area what will be the meter by which we measure ourselves as better. It is in our nature to judge and compare. Why is it also in our nature to dislike differences? Looking back I believe absolutely every society that expanded in the name of peace would be later judged by history as wrong.
We have called it many things. We have used many names. We have had many reasons. When we boil down the truths and get to the facts, History will be written by the winner only if he continues to win.
New authors are picking up their pens and for the first time in my existence I am reading from the non-fiction section. I am sure there is something that I am missing or that there is a part somewhere that makes my view unique or WRONG but I can not throw away my view. These are things as I see them. I believe the book will go on but that the chapters of our existence were merely paragraphs.
The world will go on. Children will be born fall in love and die. We just don't know whose children yet, and my desire is that it is ours. I don't feel that our children have any more right to live and love than anyone else’s, but if I have to vote, I vote for our children to live and for us to be sad for theirs.
I may not be educated enough to be a leader here but I am smart enough to know that voting is what a democracy is all about.
