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One of my favourite musicals of all time is George and Ira Gershwin's STRIKE UP THE BAND, a totally demented piece of work about the US going to war with Switzerland over cheese. It involves government ineptness and industrial espionage and a whole host of other things that make me wonder why no one's mounted a first-class revival. Maybe because it's a wee bit too cynical and a touch too harsh on people who start wars for the sake of profit. When it was written, we'd just ended World War 1, and the financial impact was being seen for the travesty it was. A few companies did very, very well during the War to End All Wars, all in the name of Patriotism.
Does this sound a bit familiar? It should. Being a vet myself, I applaud anyone who has the balls to put on a uniform and serve his or her country. God knows, these days, that's anything but a cushy job: you never know when things are going to explode (sometimes literally) right in front of you.
But back home, away from the harsh reality of day to day combat, we look at the situation they've been dumped into, and we glamorize it out of all reasonable proportion, just so we can avoid looking at some really uncomfortable truths. Never mind that now we know, pretty much for a fact, that the US's entry into Iraq was coldly and baldly calculated, for the express purpose not of bringing democracy to anyone but so a certain ex-Vice-President's company could ram through no-temder contracts that would garner them 35 billion in profits...
35 billion, made on the backs of 4,000 dead US soldiers, anywhere from 100,000 to possible 500,000 dead Iraqis, and God only knows how many injured on both sides. Three trillion-with-a-t added to the national debt just in the US alone.
35 billion. Let that number sink in for a sec.
But to pull in that kind of cash in that kind of scam, war has to be made chic and fashionable and, above all, patriotic. You wrap it up in sequined flags and decorate it with phrases like "Freedom Fries!" Then, to prevent anyone from asking too many questions, you turn the tables on everyone, pass the ironically named "Patriot Act" (to protect everyone, remember), and then look at the one guy who had the hutzpah to shine a Kleig light on all this and declare him a traitor and an enemy of the state.
Now it looks like the US is going to be committed to another decade or two in the Middle East. Eventually troops will be sent back to contain yet another extremist group the US created in the first place, along with its other remarkable inventions: the Taliban and the AQ. Can you just wait?
So next year, when Memorial Day rolls around again and you see all manner of politicians sidling up to any available microphone and telling anyone who will listen about "the great job our boys are doing!", make a point of asking them: Just who are "our boys" working for, anyway?