I was too young to have my contemporaries drafted but I certainly remember the draft. Not old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin but know that it was bullshit used to escalate war. Same with Richard Nixon scotching the Paris Peace talks for his election. Born after the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran but old enough to remember how the holding of hostages as political theater to defeat Carter and elect Reagan.
We have a very long history of the 1% using American deaths as a rallying cry for even more sacrifice. And sadly many died because of the illusion of serving higher principles than corporate bottom line. This time, the same kind of ruse is being played, with American asking how much death is enough death? As if Wall Street is ever asked to calculate the ROI on death. We are again hearing the “let’s go shopping” cry after 9/11, as if we are a country of nothing but consumers. Well, in fact, we are a country that makes little and floods “the economy” with an endless need for cheap shit. And the notion that freedom is the ability to buy cheap shit.
Instead of memorializing the Americans who died serving our country, we spend it shopping for cheap mattress deals, flooding recreational venues and grilling burgers. Cuz, patriotism. I don’t want to feed this never ending system of consumerism and I am not willing to die for it. My heartbreak is that so many of our fellow citizens are.