Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This Is What Soldiers Should Be Doing


These are US soldiers on their way to Japan to render assistance to the Japanese people.

To me, this is what soldiers should be trained and used for. How pointless a waste of lives and resources is it to be involved in wars around the world. The US is now involved in THREE armed conflicts. The US is the world's only remaining super power and to see lives and treasure wasted in such pointless ways drives me crazy. The country has be driven to bankruptcy and the recession that was created as a result has ripple effects all over the planet.

All that material and resources need to go into humanitarian missions at home and abroad. These marines going into Japan are a perfect use of the military. The army is trained in logistics and deployment and they know how to get necessary materials to those who are suffering. They have the equipment to rebuild damaged infrastructure. How much would it improve the reputation of America if they showed up with food and water instead of bombs and bullets?

Canada, itself tries very hard to be humanitarian 'peacekeepers' in any conflict we choose to lend assistance too. Fighting and killing the enemy is low on our list of priorities. We prefer to try to be a buffer BETWEEN waring forces.

Try to imagine how much better the world would be, how much better the countries would be, how much better the soldiers and their families would be if we shifted their responsibilities to the side of aid rather than death.

Unfortunately the voracious appetites of the military industrial complex will never allow that and we all suffer under that truth.

7 comments:

M. D. Jackson said...

Unfortunately Canada's role as a "peacekeeper" has been tarnished recently by having a much more active role in combat situations. That includes being an active participant in this current action against Libya, which was a very bad idea for all involved and will likely not end well.

Lazarus Lupin said...

The Military Industrial complex didn't start a civil revolt in Libya.

Be that as it may, check this out.

http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/2011/03/deconstructing-cal.html

Remember bad art is the sincerest form of flattery

Lazarus lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review

DEZMOND said...

my tears go to all the poor people in Libya who are now dying under the bombs of American, French and British colonial, oil-thirsty aggressors. My country has shed the same tears under same aggressors back in 1999. The plot was identical, the pain of the innocent victims indescribable.
I've lost what could have been the best year in my life (the first year at college) under NATO bombs, and seeing the same thing happening to our African brothers and sisters and their children is abnormally painful.

Samuel said...

the uk, us and french are bombing to protect the people of Libya not to destroy them or anything like that. They are aiming for army defences just to try and stop the deaths of innocent civilians, they aren't after oil or anything like that.

DEZMOND said...

They told you the same thing, Samuel, back in 1999 when they were bombing my country, but American bombs still killed thousands of innocent civilians and kids, not to mention that they destroyed numerous of our factories, bridges and buildings which we still haven't managed to rebuilt. And the number of cancer diseases has risen in a horrifying number thanks to the poisonous bombs they were throwing at us.

Budd said...

as a former soldier, during peacetime, I can tell you that soldiers love these types of deployments. Sure there is hard work to be done, but it beats doing the same old trainign classes and going down to the motor pool to sweep dirt off a slab of pavement for the 4th time in a week. We were on call to fight fires in CA one year and everyone was hoping we would go. They went so far as to take our measurements for fire suits, but we didn't get to go.

Lazarus Lupin said...

DEZ so you were ok with Qadaffi Duck killing his own people, but God forbid anyone else get into the action? And if you aren't ok with it, what was to be done?