Another Veterans Day has come and gone with its usual reminders to thank our soldiers for “protecting our freedom.”
At my work at an elementary school in Southern Maine, I received a heavy dose of this: a school-wide assembly to honor local veterans, construction-paper American flags waved by every kid, “I’m Proud to be an American” rehearsed in music classes and sung at the assembly, PA system announcements and emails praising veterans and all they do for our country.
As I reflect on all of this, I am compelled to think about the commonly held belief that veterans are heroes who fight for our freedom. If we accept this, we must also accept that the wars the veterans have fought in have been for just causes and that the institution that produces veterans — the military — is a just and noble institution.
Any casual look at the real history of the military and American wars offers a strikingly different perspective. Our military has played key roles in the overthrow or attempted overthrow of democratically elected leaders in Iran, Guatemala, Brazil, The Congo, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela, to name just a few. Our wars have resulted in the deaths of millions of civilians, and our newest weapons of choice — drones — are much more likely to result in the deaths of civilians, according to a study by the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses of drone strikes in Afghanistan in 2010-11. Many of these civilians also have died from chemical weapons consciously used by the U.S. military, such as Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and depleted uranium during both Iraq wars.
These are just some of the atrocities committed by the U.S. military. So why has this happened? I’ll let Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, one of the U.S. military’s highest decorated officers, explain. What he said in the 1930s holds true today: “I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of the racket all the time. Now I am sure of it.”
What Butler expressed is a belief held by me and other peace activists worldwide: that the U.S. military’s aim is expanding the profit margins of big corporations — especially those that design the weapons of war and gain access to the natural resources of the countries we occupy — and advancing the political dominance of the U.S. Rather than being about freedom and democracy, the U.S. military is a tool for domination, and many innocent people, including veterans, have been sacrificed for this.
If we truly believe in freedom, democracy and justice as we say we do and as we teach our children to do, how do we reconcile these truths with the status-quo traditions of Veterans Day? The answer? Stop supporting these status-quo traditions.
I do not mean we should not support veterans. They are human beings, and many have endured incredible hardships fighting war. They deserve our compassion and our support. But I will not call them heroes because doing so means I accept what they were fighting for was just, and I would be lying if I said I believed that to be true.
Instead, I will work to end war so no more veterans will return home in body bags or physically and mentally wounded. I will work to end war so the resources used for destruction instead can be used to heal our veterans and fund our schools. I will work to end war so no more soldiers have to kill innocent people. This is how I will honor our veterans.
And as an educator, I will honor our children by not teaching them a romanticized and untruthful view of veterans, war and the military. They deserve better than that. They deserve the truth, and the chance to think critically instead of being bombarded with only one message that conditions them to blindly support such a ghastly and inhumane thing as war.
We don’t need to tell children, especially the youngest ones, all the grisly details, but we also should not offer them such a narrow view. Children are never too young to be lied to. If we care about them and care about living in a more sane, decent and peaceful world, then this is what we need.
EricCollins works in special education. A Portland resident, he also is a peace activist and graduate of the University of Maine.