Honoring our military

 

Memorial Day is coming up again and we make a lot of noise about how we honor our military. I say noise because there is no substance. After sending our young people into harms way, the often become physically and mentally injured. I applaud the care they do get that keeps them alive, but we can’t wait to forget about them and we always do.

 

Throughout our history starting with the war for independence the surviving soldiers were neglected if not outright mistreated. If we really want to honor our military make   war more of a rarity. We could start by picking up a copy of the United States Constitution which states that war can only be declared by Congress and ratified by the President. How novel an idea would that be?

 

And just because some major American company is having trouble with a local government why should our young shed their blood? This is a pattern that has sent our young to war for decades, if not centuries. United Fruit and various oil companies are examples.

 

"War is a Racket" (see below) according to a decorated officer from an earlier time, but what has changed? The names of the guilty? There are benefits of war but they never accrue to the people who shoulder the rifle.

 

Let’s honor our present veterans with the funding that will be needed to fulfill the promise that we will never, never, abandon them. Let’s honor our future service people in general by promising we will never go to war without a declaration of war from the congress. Let us further honor them by creating a draft that exposes the entire population to the possibility of serving their country. Having served as an enlisted man I can tell you it is not the worst experience in my life, in fact it may be one of the more satisfying times I’ve experienced.

 

On this Memorial Day write your Congressman and tell him to exercise the power of war or peace that he constitutionally has in his hands.

 

– Ernie Fazio

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."