Would You Do It?

It's recently occurred to me that in my rantings about Generation IPod, I've forgotten a certain group. A guy made a comment about who else I had missed- namely jocks, potheads, lazy people, and a group that still is beyond my radar- "those other people."
But he, like me, and probably many others, forgot this esteemed group within our generation. I feel terrible about it, because while I may bitch about everybody else in my radar screen, these guys are off the map. I shouldn't have ignored these guys because I was bitching about everybody else. They should have gotten some accolades or something.
I'm talking about soldiers. Okay, so even though I'm sure most of them have IPods, they're still cool in my book.
See, I was thinking about this war in general, how fucked up it is and how it's always been fucked up, and I remember the single most reason for my rage against the administration being the fact that all the people who were going to die were going to be MY friends, MY classsmates, MY prom king and ex-boyfriend and class president and car mechanic and lawn mower and girl next door. MY generation. OUR generation. Us. Just about everybody who isn't an officer over there is 18 to 24 years old.
And I was pissed because a bunch of old rich fucks were sending us over there before we'd even had a chance to become old rich fucks.
See, there are many different types of wars. And we, as a country, have seen them all. There's peacekeeping missions. And treaty-type wars. Like if China decided to attack Taiwan, we'd be over there fighting. There's humanity wars. Somalia and Yugoslavia are examples of how we value people enough to fight for them. And there's when we get attacked. In which case, we'll gonna beat the shit out of you.
Then comes the self-interest wars. Obvious example: French and Indian War. Ha! You thought I was going to say Vietman. Well, I was. Because it was. So is Iraq. This type of war is a pretty shady and grey area. Is human life worth our own self-interest? Good question. See, acccording to our humanity war doctrines, we'll willing to risk American lives to save those less fortunate than us, and then again, we'll also willing to risk other's lives to keep our fortunes.
I would never want any part of that. Nobody's life is worth American self interest. You know what that's like? Beating or killing someone for their IPod. Simply put- heinous and stupid. But here I am, part of a generation fighting a war that secures nothing but our interest. Through no fault of our own, our love and citizenship purchased us a bloodbath.
Here's the breakdown on our soldiers:
First question to ask oneself is: would you do it? Volunteer to defend your country? To shoot and kill in the name of our people? Defend your soil until you are part of it? Literally sign your life away for someone else?
It takes a special kind of person to do that. If we were being attacked, then yeah, hell yeah I'd go and blow some invaders away. But to sign up to train and basically wait for a war? That's guts. Reminds me of what death row people say- death is different when you know exactly when it's coming. To be fixated on that gives it meaning. Everybody lives under the shroud of death at any given moment, but we never know when it's going to happen, and so we don't have to think or worry about it. Death Row inmates do. So I assume it's basically the same with soldiers. War is something very real to them.
They give their life away to their country, and all they really ask in return is that we don't cash in on that unless we have to. Their job is to defend our country and our ideals. Unless there is a specific threat that could cost lives, they don't have to kill or be killed. And I don't think that's asking much. After all, they're willing to die for me. And they're willing to die for their Commamder-In-Chief. So he should respect their silent requests.
Oh, but he didn't! Nobody did! If you read back over the past 2-3 years, you'll begin to notice the pile of crap on this war just keeps growing. The rationale for war keeps eroding. It's gone from a we're gonna be attacked war to a humanity war until now it's sitting there naked as can be- pure self-interest. And God Damn them- they're MY people dying over there. OURS. Our future husbands and wives, our children's future teachers, our future leaders, and for what? For WHAT?
I want anybody who reads this to look back. Don't listen to what anybody said, don't pay attention to what anybody did. Just read. Read to yourself for yourself, and fucking tell me FOR WHAT.
Tell me if you would do it.