We gotta stop lying to our own selves, folks. I wanna focus on the 'ole military myth. What's the "military myth"? Here it is: "All those so-called 'fine' boys and girls who have joined the service to "protect our democratic way of life and (Jesus Christ!) keep America safe from the bad guys".
That's the myth.

Let me say, for once and for all, that I was a United States Air Force LoadMaster/DropMaster with the 6th Aerial Port Squadron at RAF Station Burtonwood in the UK all during the late fifties. A crew member on C-124s, C-130's, C-119s., C-123s and C-47s. I flew and worked with military personnel in drop and delivery missions from all kinds of countries besides the US of A. I believe I have a pretty good handle on the enlisted military man's (or woman's) frame of mind. And, GET THIS: I never ... NEVER ... in all those years ... met a military enlistee or officer who said they were in the game for patriotic reasons. Read my lips: NEVER! They were in the services for college programs ... or three hots and a cot ... or medical security ... or because they couldn't find a decent job down home in civilian life ... or because they wanted to travel and get laid in a lot of different foreign countries. In all those years, I NEVER met a "patriot" in uniform and I met thousands if not tens of thousands of people. What's the bottom line? All that bullshit coming from our political luminaries about our brave boys and girls in uniform is CRAP. Got it? Crap! A con job.

So, why make a point of it and get every circle jerking believer of the "myth" mad at me? Here's why: If we have to create a mythology with unbelievably obvious logical flaws in it to glorify the kids who willingly allow themselves to be brainwashed into doing the government's killing for them and sing stupid songs like "Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition" we become complicit in the crime. COMPLICIT! A colossal crime against humanity. Mass murder on a monstrous scale never before perpetrated in the written history of the world. That's why. And everyone I ever met in the military will agree with me if they have the courage to be honest with themselves.

Admittedly, a big "if".

"Be all you can be"?

How 'bout this:-

"Dear Mrs, Rashid,

My name is Spc. 1st Class Jimmy Brown. I am all I can be. I was the gunner on the chopper gunship that blew off you little boy's arms and leg. I am a good shot! I am all I can be. My President told me so. My crewmates dropped the cluster bombs that have turned your backward little Baghdad neighborhood into a horrendous killing field for the next several decades. I am all I can be. Now, you have no house, Gee. Now, your mother, husband and two children are buried in an unmarked grave-pit south of Baghdad? Golly, jeepers, Mrs. Rashid. But, lookit my nice machine gun. One of the most efficient killing machines in the arsenals of the world. With this nice gun, I am all I can be.

I never wanted to come to Iraq. I never wanted to leave my wife and kids back in the states. I just wanted to get the government to pick up the tab for my living and medical expenses while I did twenty soft years picking up a couple of stripes and getting to retire on a military pension. But, Jeez, now I gotta come out here and murder your family, destroy your life and create personal misery on a scale that defies human comprehension. I am all I can be. So, go to hell, Mrs. Rashid. My President tells me that if I kill off your family with my high tech weaponry and turn your tiny country into a nightmare, we'll all be safer from "terrorism" than if I let you and your little children live.

My President isn't interested in your country's oil, by the way. The fact that he made his personal fortune in illegal oil/energy shenanigans is purely coincidental. The fact that, now, his oil/energy cronies are making a mind boggling fortune off your misery is purely coincidental. The fact that these same industrial interests have put up millions and millions of dollars to keep my President in office for the next four years is, also, purely coincidental, Mrs. Rashid. When you cry your heart out over the memory of your lost loved ones, remember that the key word here is "coincidental". When you look with vacant eyes across the burning desolation that was once your life and neighborhood, Mrs. Rashid. Just remember that there is some sort of cosmic justification in the fact that we ... me and my fellow heroic troops ... have devastated your world because you "allowed" a sadistic tyrant to manipulate your lives. I can believe that. I DO believe it because my training in the military makes it easy for me to do so. Why? Because I am all that I can be.

And, do you know what, Mrs. Rashid? Back home in the United States everyone is saying, "We gotta support our troops!" The politicians running for office make a big deal out of equating our crimes against humanity with depleted uranium, cluster bombs, B-52 carpet bombing in residential areas, torturing and humiliating your countrymen's resistance fighters and machine gunning your terrified civilian population in the back as GOOD STUFF! Got it, Mrs. Rashid? GOOD STUFF! We're HEROES in the eyes of our civilian countrymen. HEROES, Mrs. Rashid.

Why? Because they support us troops! They believe the "military myth" Mrs. Rashid. They believe that we're saving the world from terrorists by ripping your heart apart with our clever little high-tech weapons. They believe because they HAVE to believe. They believe because if they ever paused to consider the obvious ... the incredible criminal con ... their own tears would initiate the next and final global deluge."

Spc. 1st Class Jimmy Brown
Psychiatric Ward
US Army Medical Facility
Lexington, KY USA

Moral? Being a soldier AIN'T being all you can be.