I was very disappointed in the Veteran’s Day Parade this past Saturday in Bend. It may be one of the biggest in Oregon, but it was lacking in the music department! Just three bands for the entire parade? Where are the local high school bands? Where are the Armed Forces bands? Where are some local bands (drum and bugle corps, for instance)? It was nice to see how many people participated in the parade, but musically it was too quiet. Too bad.
Gary P.
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2008.
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All the soldiers are dead. It was 90 years ago on 11/11/18 an Armistice was called on the field of battle in Europe. America’s direct involvement had lasted less than two years. Led by a President who won re-election in 1916 on a solid platform of keeping America out of The Great War. So much for truth-in-advertising in political campaigns. The last U.S. World War I soldier lived up until this past year. I don’t know if he was one of those who came back from the killing fields of eastern France with “shell shock”. But I do know that there were thousands of men who did, and who were robbed of the joy of their adulthood by the horrors they endured in the trenches of forgotten (and pointless) battlefields. It’s been said that as late as 1915 there was some dispute about which side the U.S. should come in on in the fighting in Europe. Plenty of German-Americans loved Kaiser Wilhelm and would have gladly died for him. But, I have it on good evidence that Wilson decided to come in on the side of King George V because George had wheedled about $5 Billion in loans from the J.P. Morgan Bank and its correspondent bank in London, and the Morgan people were aghast at the thought of losing their money should Willie best his cousin George at the game of trenches. Those with a fondness for film will recall the infamous dinner scene in “Reds” where Jack Reed/Warren Beatty blurts out the truth about why WW I was raging: “Profits”.
Which brings us to the current matter, the notion that Bend needs bands to help celebrate war. Really? Wouldn’t it be better to have celebrations of no war? Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have soldiers (and sometimes I consider these the lucky ones) coming home in boxes and bags? Because over the last seven years, we’ve had about 10,000 soldiers come home with half their heads blown off, limbs shot apart and if I’m to believe the suppressed news out of Walter Reed Hospital a horrendous situation in which about 1,000 suicide attempts are thwarted every month. Suicide attempts by young men, mostly, who will never have a happy adulthood, and may never have a completely happy day in their rest of their lives. For this we should have oompah bands playing? Just what are we celebrating here?
Oh, and have you heard, we got lied into the war in Iraq, and the one in Afghanistan has gone on so long it’s like Orwell’s battles between Our Homeland vs. Eurasia or Eastasia; “oh, we’ve always been at war with Eastasia” said Big Brother’s spokesmen.
So here’s my vote. Let’s have bands out to greet the last of our soldiers when they are no longer forced to fight half a planet away for vague and deceitful cries of patriotism, while at the back of everyone’s mind we all know that our soldiers fight mostly for that thing that Jack Reed noticed. Profits. Profits for Dyncorp, Halliburton General Dynamics, Raytheon, Boeing, GE, Blackwater and all the platoons of subcontractors that are enriching and engorging themselves on the blood of strangers, half a planet away.
Let’s call out the bands when we can celebrate something worth celebrating. Let’s celebrate Peace.
Music at military-oriented parades tends to entertain onlookers and is a subtle way of promoting militarism, an aspect that has proved to be fatal to a number of nations and empires.
On any day set aside to recognize military adventures and misadventures we would do well to have seminars and other forms of discussion to consider the various aspects of war. November 11th was originally set aside to remember the dead of Britain’s Great War for Civiliation and Woodrow Wilson’s War to End all Wars, neither of which proved to be the case.
American jingoists like to consider America’s entry into the Great War as the first of two wars in which America bailed out Britain and France. A nice myth, but like most myths not true. Wilson was determined to get into this war but by early 1917 hadn’t had much luck. At that time British, French and German forces were fighting to gain a few yards of barren, shell-pocked landscape one day only to lose them the next. Despite this madness some sanity managed to infiltrate the thinking of the leaders of the contending armies so that they considered a truce. Unfortunately, by that time the British were given an understanding that America would enter the war and give them victory over the Germans so the truce was shelved. The war continued until 11/11/18 and another million men lost their lives. At dawn on November 11th the leaders knew that an armistice would be signed at 11:00 am that day. Nevertheless, the French, British and the American generals ordered their troops to continue fighting – and dying – until the last few minutes.
I don’t know of any martial music that would bring that crime against humanity to the attention of parade onlookers who would probably prefer to be amused by some oompah-oompah.
Recommended reading: “The Politics of War” by Walter Karp.
“Music at military-oriented parades tends to entertain onlookers and is a subtle way of promoting militarism, an aspect that has proved to be fatal to a number of nations and empires.”
But not ours!
Its a shame that we only devote one day per year to recognize our fabulous veterans. Many thanks to all who have served and to those who serve now. So strike up the band, and celebrate our nation’s proud military heritage in spite of knuckleheads like Bodden.
Bill Bodden has introduced us to a wonderful man of letters. His wisdom is readily on display to anyone viewing a screen at the moment, like you! Just wander over to a useful website called Third World Traveler and seek out the Authorsâ ™ Page. It’s a goldmine of wisdom about the â ~American Empire and It’s Sorrowsâ ™. That being also the title of a book by another author worth knowing, Chalmers Johnson.
The anti-intellectuals among us will certainly desire to disparage both Bill and myself for recommending that people read widely in order to understand the world they live in. â ~It’s so much easier the other wayâ ™, they’ll say. Why don’t we just tune in KBND and listen for a few minutes to get what Orwell described as the daily “two minute hate”? Oh, the grand Pooh-Bahs of pooh-for-brains thinking like Limbaugh, Hannity and Larsen are bound to satisfy the need for hate among those being dispossessed by the elite imperial aristocracy (actually a kakistocracy) that runs this country with magnificently malicious propaganda in service of a mad militarism that no previous generation was forced to endure.
So, strike up the band, you say? And for what? Another illegal and immoral imperial expedition halfway across the planet for the sake of the war-profiteers? How is this even remotely linked to patriotism except in the minds of the jingo-addled cannon fodder class? The rich don’t get involved in these messes, except inadvertently.
I think we need to treat war for what it is. Generally a vile, immoral racket proposed by rich men for their further enrichment. Those who propose we strike up the band for the cannon fodder seem to me to be missing the entire point of the excercise.
Further recommended reading for Jon Jegglie: Google for “General Smedley Butler” a two-time winner of the Medal of Honor during his 34 years in the United States Marines. He was also the author of “War is a Racket” and was credited with saving the United States from a fascist takeover during FDR’s presidency.
Jon Jegglie might want to reconsider his point about only one day being devoted per year to honor veterans. Add Memorial Day to Veterans Day and that makes two. Then there are all the pro-war movies made by a collaborative effort between the Pentagon and some producers in Hollywood.
Jon: You might want to read the above again. Nobody has leveled any criticism against veterans. Only against war. Are you in favor of war? Is it like a sport for you? You didn’t seem to appreciate my comments on the First World War. Did you know that a number of distinguished historians have offered a plausible theory that Wilson’s entry into that horror was a contributory factor in bringing about the Second World War? Recommended reading: “11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month” by Joseph Persico and “Paris 1919” by Margaret MacMillan.
You claim to have a concern for the veterans. How about the World War I vets who had to fight – and die or become wounded – until the last few minutes of that debacle even though the general knew at dawn that an armistice would be signed that day? What was your attitude to that? Enjoy it until the last minute because there might not be another war for a while? How about the young men and women who were lied to to get them into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and came back in coffins or on stretchers? How about the thousands who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD and, especially, those among that group who found suicide the only way to get relief from their agonies? How about the many thousands of young men and women who were told the shots they were being given to protect them from nerve gas would be safe and who are now suffering Gulf War Syndrome?
‘The anti-intellectuals among us will certainly desire to disparage both Bill and myself for recommending that people read widely in order to understand the world they live in.’
Ray and Bill–If you choose to not honor veterans on November 11th, don’t. It is counter-productive to label those who choose to do so as anti-intellectual dimwits who don’t read. If you think that everyone who turns out at a Veterans Day Parade is doing so in a jingoistic celebration of patriotism and war, you are grievously mistaken. For many it is in memorium of a lost spouse, parent or child. For many it is to mark the sacrifice of many–wrong-headed as that may be in your eyes–for what they believe to be the good of others.
I wish there was a world where only peace existed–it doesn’t. Turning the other cheek in some cases leads to two bruised cheeks. When the need arises there will always be those who step forward. Conflicts are inevitable.
I offer you the same advice I give to people who are anti-abortion: don’t have one. If you don’t want to participate in Veteran’s Day remembrances–DON’T. It is unnecessary to denigrate those who serve and those who honor their memory.
Ray–‘Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have soldiers (and sometimes I consider these the lucky ones) coming home in boxes and bags?’ For someone who finds support for their world view in cinematic works of fiction, I guess such ‘consideration’ is to be expected.
To our commenters who are finding every excuse in the world not to address the utter horror of war and its basic lack of necessity to our country, I will add the following about the outrageous mess that our politicians made in Southeast Asia.
Robert McNamara, the chief architect of the Viet Nam War is a very troubled old man. You could tell by watching his sorrow as he was filmed (no, Stephen, not in a work of fiction) in “The Fog Of War”. McNamara finally admitted to a figure of 3.4 Million Vietnamese killed in the period of U.S. invasion forces in that beleaguered nation during our imperialist aggressions from 1958 to 1975. Add to that outrageous total the figure of at least 2 million dead in Cambodia due to our destabilization of that ancient culture. And add a few hundred thousand more in the Golden Triangle area of Laos where our CIA waged a secret war for control of the opium trade, reminiscent of the blossoming of opium production today in U.S. occupied Afghanistan. In sum, between 1958 and 1975 there were an excess of over SIX MILLION slaughtered in South East Asia for the sake of imperial overreach by a lying pack of hyenas in our Pentagon and White House. Oh, yes. The war really started escalating in SE Asia after the utterly bald lies told to the Congress and the American people by that liar Lyndon Johnson and that liar Bob McNamara. The Tonkin Gulf Incident? Pure fantasy. Made up by politicians to lie the nation into a useless war. Absolutely useless for the 58,000 Americans who came back in body bags. Not quite so useless for Lady Bird Johnson who secretly owned 40% of the private shares in the largest contractor in Viet Nam, the Brown & Root Construction Company. So every extra platoon of soldiers that Lyndon sent to their deaths in the jungles of Viet Nam paid a healthy dividend to his wife. Nice work when you can get it, don’t you think?
Let’s wake up, America. What the heck are we celebrating war for? It’s just a racket, as Smedley Butler pointed out 70 years ago. Look it up on Google: “War is A Racket”. Read the words of a man who declared that Al Capone was a mere putz who only controlled 3 districts in Chicago while Butler himself as a Marine General was a thug on three continents for America’s bankers. Strike up the band, because the bankers are fleecing us again!
For MacNamara, the ‘troubled old man’ who unapologetically sent millions to a war that was trumped up by the administrations he served, the “Fog of War” (which I, too, have seen) was a rather cynical attempt to recoup some type of legacy–an apologia that served him better than it served those he governed with. He was an inhuman numbers cruncher then and remains one today. The movie displays the wrongheadedness of the policy and actions we took at the time.
Imperialism, though? The post-WWII world was not quite as simple as you want to believe, and the Cold War ideologies that resulted in forty years of wasted treasure and lives can’t be dismissed so casually.
“To our commenters who are finding every excuse in the world not to address the utter horror of war and its basic lack of necessity to our country.” Come on–do you think someone who uses Veterans Day to remember the loss and commemorate the sacrifice of the people who served is a celebration? For those of us who have walked the memorials, the battlefields and the hospitals I would offer that there is little joy and celebration. I feel sadness and shed tears, myself.
I can’t defend war–I certainly can’t defend the current Iraq debacle–but attacking or denigrating those who serve and those who remember them is not the way to start a dialogue. It is the way to prevent one.
Like many veterans I don’t turn out for or to parades so I wonder how many were present either in the parade or watching in Bend and how many other veterans in Bend didn’t show up. I’m also reminded of stories that are told on many occasions with the same theme – the war veteran who never talked or wanted to talk about his experiences in the war. As in many other grouping of people veterans come in a variety of flavors.
Stephan Cramer,
We are in complete agreement about McNamara and “the wrongheadedness of the policy and actions we took at the time”.
Will you then also agree with me that the U.S.A. elites were wrongheaded when they:
1953: Intervened in Iran to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1954: Intervened on behalf of the United Fruit Company in El Salvador to perpetrate a coup d’etat againt a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1961: Intervened in the Congo to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1963: Intervened in Iraq (employing a thug named Saddam Hussein) to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1973: Intervened in Chile to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1983: Intervened in Grenada to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
1989: Intervened in Panama to perpetrate a coup d’etat against a democratically elected and popular ruler?
OK, you get the picture, the pattern continues to the present day. And if some are not comprehending this reality, I’d strongly encourage them to read William Blum’s “Killing Hope” about the last 60 years of America’s imperialist interventions across the planet.
This is truly a happy day. I have instigated my first Bill Bodden “I’m smarter than you” hissy fit and associated bibliographical reference list.
Honestly sir, I only skim your posts. I find them to be nauseatingly long and boring, self aggrandizing in extreme, and almost always off topic. So I don’t really care what you think I think about WWI, war or or any other topic concerning our military.
Allow me to take this moment to re-focus you. Gary P. wrote a short, sweet letter indicating that a little music in the form of a military band would be a nice touch and a grand way to honor the men and women who serve to give you and I the freedom to offer our opinion in open forum. They deserve at least that and so much more. Gary P. doesn’t soil up his letter with the pros and cons of war. That is a different debate, not relevant or appropriate to the discussion of something so benign as a Veteran’s day parade.
You don’t claim to have a concern for veterans, but you kinda sorta want us to infer that you do. Frankly sir, people that support our veterans stand up and do it proudly, patriotically, and indiscriminately…….the same way today’s service members approach their missions. Our military is comprised of exceptionally high quality people. Their standards are higher. Their patriotism is greater. 70% of the current U.S. Army is comprised of soldiers who raised their right hand after 9/11. That’s macho! These people deserve praise and gratitude.
God bless our veterans, past, present, and future.
Attack of the Zombies
To whom it may concern,
Celebrations of militarism, such as Veteran’s Day parades are hardly benign. If you will investigate the files at the Pentagon you’ll discover studies on the propaganda value of the enforced attendance at Veteran’s Day parades across America. That’s right. A high percentage of the personnel marching in Veteran’s Day Parades are their because their commanding officers demand their “voluntary” presence. Exactly what is benign about this coercion linked to a stimulation of the adulation of militarism?
It is said that “people that support our veterans stand up and do it proudly, patriotically, and indiscriminately.” And that is exactly the problem. Indiscrimate, unexamined and mindless support is properly called “nationalism” rather than “patriotism” and it is this mindless nationalism and jingoistic militarism that we Americans fought against in World War II when cruel, ruthless and cunning leaders made the indiscriminate population in Japan and Germany engage in viciously immoral and illegal aggression against other weaker nations. Say like George Bush attacking the weak nation of Iraq as a modern example.
Again, it is said “the current U.S. Army is comprised of soldiers who raised their right hand after 9/11. That’s macho!”
Macho? How about misguided. You see there were many reactions to 9/11 but the one that I finally settled on after the initial shock & awe that immobilized my intellect for a couple months was to start to really try to figure out what happened on 9/11. And then to my horror I simultaneously witnessed a government coverup of massive proportions to hide the facts about 9/11 from the public. Absolutely no one suggests that anyone from Iraq attacked the U.S. on 9/11, yet we were lied into a war with that sad nation. A better idea for Americans after the 9/11 attack rather than signing up to go murder hajis in revenge attacks would have been for Americans to look at who actually perpetrated 9/11. The one fact that is abundantly clear is that Osama Bin Laden and 19 patsies were simply not capable of turning off the radars at the Pentagon, getting the Air Force to stand down or to cause the World Trade Center towers to turn to dust. Do some research. Find out for yourself whether we can trust our government to have been telling us the truth about 9/11. You’ll quickly discover how many lies have been used to lead to a path of war profiteering that has now surpassed the cost of WW II since October, 2001. This means that we’ve spent more money on chasing Bin Laden than we spent in taking down Hitler, Tojo and ending up the most prosperous nation on earth. Instead, due to the miracle of George Bush we’ve just gone into total crisis financially in this nation while Bush and Cheney’s cronies are looting this nation of trillions of dollar in war rackets and financial swindles.
And you think this is worth fighting for? Are you nuts?
Ray
Cherry pick your issues and put the ‘imperialist’ slant on them that you must. These acts are indefensible, IF, as you and others who claim that the only motivation was profit for the powerful, the justification was purely economic as you claim. Others make with an equally jaundiced view of history claim that they were necessary battles in the the cold war that were the only way of keeping the Communists off our doorstep. The Cold War was a ‘struggle’ between two economic, political and social systems that supports both points of view–and for every action you mention there were actions on the ‘other side’ that prompted or responded to those listed.
But you are now far afield from the real issue here–honoring veterans who have served or fallen. Jegglie and I may not agree on much–but the words I write here were guaranteed and earned through the service and sacrifice of others. I don’t worry about a knock on the door in the middle of the night if I offend someone or write an unpopular post.
It was a freedom bought and paid for by those in the military whether you acknowledge it or not. Others do. You may not respect that, but you should.
Historical revisionists exist on the fringe and they are relegated there not because the so-called mainstream wants to silence them, but that they reject their ideas and opinions as wrong. Sometimes, the majority knows what’s best.
Stephen,
Re: “I don’t worry about a knock on the door in the middle of the night if I offend someone or write an unpopular post.”
Many Americans do. Here’s an outrageous case where the government that you say you are defending (or did you say you were defending the People?) acted in a completely illegal, immoral and outrageously totalitarian fashion:
Google: “I Spy Something Green”
Mike Tidwell, New York Times Bestselling author reported: “I’m not sure what’s more shocking: the news that the Maryland State Police wrongfully spied on me for months as a “suspected terrorist,” or that, despite surveillance of me, officers apparently wouldn’t recognize me if I walked into their police headquarters tomorrow.
I’m a former Peace Corps volunteer, an Eagle Scout, church member, youth baseball coach, and dedicated father. I also happen to be director of one of the largest environmental groups in Maryland, a nonprofit that promotes windmills and solar panels in the fight against global warming. So imagine my shock to get a police letter last month saying I was one of 53 Maryland activists on a terrorist watch list”
And who else? CodePINK Women For Peace was on that same “terrorist” list:
Google: “CodePINK Women Speak Out Against Illegal Spying”
And how about St. Paul, MN where police terrorized peaceful and nonviolent protesters in their sleep prior to the RNC Convention, then went on to arrest 200 in a riverfront park on no pretext whatsoever? This outrageous totalitarian state police madness is captured in a remarkable video here:
Google: “Terrorizing Dissent”
Those who think America is perfect or worth defend whether right or wrong, I’m worrying about you. Anyone who is sleeping well and not concerned about terrorist government attacks on innocent people in the middle of the night must truly be out of it. This mode of vicious attack has been the M.O. of the U.S. miiltary in Iraq for the past five years, St. Paul this election season and regularly in the past such as when the Chicago police assassinated Black Panthers in their sleep three decades ago, or when the FBI colluded with the Memphis police to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr.. You can go back farther in our history to where the U.S. Army slaughtered 400 innocent native Americans in the infamous Sand Creek Massacre:
Google: “Sand Creek Massacre”
Wake up, and smell the moral rot in your Empire’s vindictive aggression.
“The one fact that is abundantly clear is that Osama Bin Laden and 19 patsies were simply not capable of turning off the radars at the Pentagon, getting the Air Force to stand down or to cause the World Trade Center towers to turn to dust.”
Well, we finally got there.
You’re guaranteed the right to speak–and the more you speak, the more outlandish and wrongheaded you become.
You’re trying to connect the dots with invisible ink. ‘Research’ on the internet can also place the blame on space aliens. Amazing that the gang that couldn’t shoot straight now occupying the White House has managed, according to you, to pull off the greatest cover-up in history.
You have officially gone through the looking glass.
‘Those who think America is perfect or worth defend whether right or wrong, I’m worrying about you. Anyone who is sleeping well and not concerned about terrorist government attacks on innocent people in the middle of the night must truly be out of it.’
I’m not in the ‘my country right or wrong’ crowd so don’t try to put me there! Yes, the paranoia of some in the government has led to abuses. Yes, we have to be vigilant. But just being paranoid does not mean that someone is out to get you. If there is a group out there that believes EVERYTHING that the government does is right and justified, there is a counter group that believes that everything the government does is WRONG. Where do you fall? You’ve read enough Howard Zinn. Time to take a break.
“Macho? How about misguided.”
Yes Duray, Macho. Don’t strain yourself! It’s not something you can understand by sitting around on your ass reading books all day.