Not all Equality is Equal (You're in the Army Now, so STFU)

Not All Equality is Equal

(You're in the Army Now, So STFU)

Cindy Sheehan

 

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier 1935

 ("Nothing has changed." Cindy Sheehan, 2013)

Even though I am a staunch supporter of equality, I was not overjoyed when the Pentagon announced in 2011 that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) was being repealed. Similarly, as a feminist myself, I am not overjoyed that the Pentagon is now “lifting the ban” on women in combat.

First of all, since for many decades, only straight males were technically allowed to serve in combat, I would like the “equality to trend the other way. A great service to all the women, children, and men of this entire planet would be achieved if straight males had the same equality to NOT serve the oil companies and other corporations it the bloodbaths for profit of the Military Industrial Complex. Shouldn’t a woman in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Mali, Iraq, Gaza (and, unfortunately, more) have an equal right to peace? Disarm the US or fully arm the women whose countries and families are being destroyed for the war jackals.

Secondly, my son, Casey, who was KIA in Iraq on April 04, 2004, reportedly REFUSED to go into combat the day he was killed. One of his fellow soldiers told me that when Casey was given the order, he said: “No, I’m not going, I am only a mechanic.” Why must our young people of any gender or sexual orientation be forced to violate his/her own set of principles? My son joined for university money and was well aware that he one day might be ordered to defend his country or community, but it’s been decades (if ever) that the US has actually been under dire military threat.

Finally, with a reported 90% of female troops being either raped, sexually molested, or harassed, our young women, wearing the uniform of the oppressor, have already been in combat, against their own comrades and superiors! Of course, female soldiers, Marines, or sailors: report at your own risk. There's few "boys clubs" that can compare to the US Military for harsh retribution and injustice.

On the TV box today, I heard current SecDef, Leon Panetta, proclaim that: “Any citizen who qualifies to be in combat, deserves to." What he really means is: “We plan on expanding the Empire to all of those fossil fuel rich areas like Iran and Africa, so we need more cannon fodder.”

As a woman and mother, I dismay on a daily basis that I didn’t better protect my son from the gore-soaked claws of the US Army; and more importantly, as a woman and mother (and now grandmother), I could NEVER, EVER in a million years kill another woman or her child (or, innocent man, for that matter--and all of the oppressed/occupied peoples are innocent).

The US military has long been a malevolent force in the world and war jackals like Leon Panetta sit safely ensconced in their ivory towers ordering the poor and disadvantaged children of others to go and do their filthy work. In my experienced opinion, adding more combat-able demographics is nothing to celebrate in a sane world.

In Bizarro-USA (the opposite of the USA we have currently), access to education; fulfilling employment with a decent wage; healthcare; a clean environment and sustainable energy (with foods free of GMO’s and other toxins) should be our basic human rights—not the one where the establishment confers the dishonorable right to murder, or be murdered for the Evil Empire.