In his piece today at TomDispatch, Rory Fanning explores the endless range of thank-you and welcome-home ceremonies that go on all the time in this country, including the 50th anniversary celebration in Bangor, Maine, of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and explores just what the thank-you, thank-you, thank-you phenomenon really means. He ends this way: “There is no question that we should honor people who fight for justice and liberty. Many veterans enlisted in the military thinking that they were indeed serving a noble cause, and it’s no lie to say that they fought with valor for their brothers and sisters to their left and right. Unfortunately, good intentions at this stage are no substitute for good politics. The war on terror is going into its 14th year. If you really want to talk about ‘awareness raising,’ it’s years past the time when anyone here should be able to pretend that our 18-year-olds are going off to kill and die for good reason. How about a couple of concerts to make that point? “Until then, I’m going to drink wine and try to enjoy the music over the sound of the espresso machine.”
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 20:03:00 +0000
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