Adam_Fulford wrote:
This Memorial Day, I am humbly grateful to America's soldiers who helped crush the Nazis.
My condolences to the soldiers and military families suffering casualties in the quagmire of the Iraq War.
[span style="font-family: Verdana;"]Well, Adam, you live in Vancouver, don't you? I present an except from a much-maligned post I put up on DV a while ago (under the heading "Pissed at the US government?"):[/span][br style="font-family: Verdana;"]
[font style="font-family: Verdana;" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2"]"How about doing something to change the way the current government is treating dissidents in the US military (whom they persist in labelling 'deserters' even here in Canada) who are petitioning the Canadian government for asylum?
"Before you go on about their 'voluntary service' and all that, let me assure you that I have a number of friends who are stuck in the US military and National Guard--some of them currently in Iraq, unfortunately--who joined long before 9/11 and for very different purposes than the ones to which they've been put currently. Most of them could have gotten their college tuition or 'job training' (a total joke in the military, but a huge recruiting point) elsewhere, but joined to DEFEND our country (after all, the ruling bureaucracy is called the Department of Defense, is it not?). They expected to be called upon to provide aid in natural disasters in the US and abroad or serve in peacekeeping missions--not terrorise innocent people in defence of oil company interests. Had they wanted to be badass mercenaries they would have joined the foreign legion or some such.
"If the Canadian government would see its way (and even with a minority Conservative government all hope is not necessarily lost) to providing temporary asylum to US military dissidents (who would be bringing money into the country with them as well), there's a good chance that a huge percentage of 'stop loss' types like my friends would take advantage of it. The US government could be forced to attempt to reinstitute conscription, and the resulting shit storm could very likely force them to pull out of Iraq--or, at the very least, abandon their totally moronic ideas about carrying the conflict into Iran.
"If you're so angry about US bullying in the international arena, take the time to write a simple letter, why don't you? Again, at least it's SOMETHING.
"Otherwise, I honestly don't believe you have the right to bitch about it, even here on DV--just as I tell people from the US that they don't have the right to complain about the government if they can't take the trouble to vote.
"Shortly after I moved here, I happened to mention to an expat Limey that I was American. His response? 'Oh, so you actually like to get things done, then.' In the years since I've been impressed by how many coworkers, neighbours and friends come to me when they want help with something: problem-solving, negotiations, interventions in disputes, organising people, writing petitions, whatever. Even when I haven't been successful (at which point I believe I HAVE earned the right to complain), at least I tried to DO something, instead of sit back and moan about things without ever having lifted a finger."
If you doubt what I say, check out
vny!://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/magazine/28vets.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
from yesterday's NY Times. A friend of mine who's stuck in the Army is from the same depressed part of PA as the subjects of this article.
I have family who have fought in every conflict from the Revolution up through WWII. What's going on now is a perversion of the principles the US and all representative governments were founded upon.
But as long as people are silent and sit on the sidelines, nothing will be done. Do you vote in the country in which you hold citizenship? Are you willing to at least make your opinion known to your government representatives?
God, just this morning some old lady knocked on my door to ask me to help her with some problem she's having with the Strata Council. I thought Americans were apathetic, but just about all I see around me here in Vancouver are self-interested lazy wingers.
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