It should surprise no one that the life of the lie that so many Americans continue to live was manifested in all its glory last Friday, on Veterans Day.
Here is just one example, from an editorial in the Gainesville Sun:
… our nation must always appreciate those who stood ready and honorably to give their lives in defense of our liberties.
This life-of-the-lie mantra was undoubtedly repeated in editorials and op-eds in the mainstream press all across America, as well as in churches, football games, and other public events over the weekend.
I will guarantee you one thing about this life of the lie: Not one person who spoke or wrote the mantra explained how exactly it was that veterans have defended or are defending our liberties.
There is a simple reason for that: They can’t do it because their mantra is a lie. Not one single U.S. veteran has given his life or killed others defending the liberties of the American people.
How do we know this?
It’s easy. None of the millions of people U.S. forces have killed in foreign lands, has ever tried to take away the liberties of the American people.
There is something important to note about those millions of people that U.S. forces have killed (and injured or maimed) since World War II: Not one single one of them ever attacked the United States or threatened to take away the liberties of the American people. In every single instance in which U.S. forces have killed, injured, and maimed people, they were the initiators of the violence against their intended victims.
What about the 9/11 attacks? They were retaliation for U.S. forces killing people in the Middle East, including the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children that the U.S. government killed with the cruel and brutal embargo that U.S. forces enforced for more than 10 years. The 9/11 attackers were retaliating, not trying to take away the liberties of the American people.
What about World War II? The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which was intentionally provoked by President Roosevelt to get the United States embroiled in World War II, was designed to prevent the U.S. Naval fleet from interfering with Japanese attempts to secure oil in the Dutch East Indies. The attack had nothing to do with trying to take away the liberties of the American people.
The same holds true for Nazi Germany. Its aims were to establish dominance on the European continent, especially by moving eastward against the communist menace in the Soviet Union, which, ironically, would also become America’s sworn enemy in the post-WWII era. Hitler’s forces couldn’t even cross the English Channel to invade England. There was never a German attempt to take away the liberties of the American people.
The same with respect to World War I. German forces never attacked the United States and never threatened to take away the liberties of the American people. U.S. forces were sent to intervene in that war in an attempt to make the world safe for democracy and in an attempt to end all wars. Both aims failed, with U.S. forces killing and dying for nothing.
Korea? Nothing but a civil war. North Korea never attacked the United States or threatened to take away our liberties.
Vietnam? Nothing but a U.S. continuation of the French Empire’s colonization and control over Vietnam. Neither the North Vietnamese nor the Viet Cong ever tried to take away the liberties of the American people.
Grenada? Panama? Nicaragua? Cuba? None of the people killed by U.S. forces in those countries ever tried to take away our liberties.
The Spanish American War in 1898? The Spanish Empire never threatened to take away the liberties of the American people. After the war was over, U.S. forces killed, injured, maimed, and tortured millions of Filipinos, none of whom ever attacked the United States or tried to take away our liberties.
So, what then have U.S. soldiers killed for and died for in all those foreign wars and escapades?
Hegemony. Dominance. Control. Empire.
That’s it. That’s what U.S. forces have killed and died for. Not “defending our liberties” but instead to establish, maintain, and expand the foreign hegemony, dominance, control, and imperialism of the U.S. government.
So, why don’t all those editorial and 0p-ed writers, church ministers, and sports announcers say that, instead of falsely claiming that veterans have defended our liberties?
Because deep down, they know that those things aren’t worth killing and dying for. And so they instead choose to live the life of the lie, hoping that in the process no one exposes it.