America the Beautiful
This picture is a visual metaphor for the unrecorded collateral damage caused to Americans by American war. Bombs bursting in air.
In this picture, a cherubic brother and sister walk through a heavenly landscape. Overhead insectoid helicopters threaten to spit death. Usually, our death machines spray brown people. Here we see blue eyed, blond children to illustrate that when America goes to war, we also damage ourselves. The unseen damage done to returning soldiers and their families can be as great as the war kill body count. Domino effect collateral damage is not factored into the official war losses. Soldier suicide rates are high. Who is counting the suicides that occur after discharge? Widows and fatherless children suffer immeasurable damage. Post traumatic stress disorder in soldiers emotionally cripples the men for the rest of their lives and distresses their families.
This visual metaphor works for me and I hope that it works for you.
I must thank the amazing British graffiti artist, Banksy for this inspiration. Thanks Banksy!
I think that really civilized people would find ways to solve problems without resorting to barbaric war.
The body count is only a small part of the expense of war. Money is the smallest part of the expense. Unrecorded collateral damage to the "American conquerors" is horrifying. The domino effect of collateral damage, applies not only to the country that is invaded, but also to the invaders.
My hairdresser, Angelle, is a foster parent angel. She took in a one year old baby, call him Sam. Sam's father had been deployed to Iraq. After his military service, Daddy returned home with an intact body. One week after discharge, he blasted a terminal gunshot wound to his head. Sam's Mommy, in hellish grief, turned to crack. Using the drug she created for herself a hell on earth. She found this drug hell preferable to the hell of grief over the senseless death of her husband. Sam ended up in foster care. His only stroke of luck was to get Angelle as his foster mother. Sam was developmentally retarded, from sharing two levels of hell with his Mom. It took months of Tender Loving Care from Angelle to help him trust again.
Daddy did not show up in the body count. Mommy was not counted. Even with a good foster mother, Sam will have emotional challenges that last his entire lifetime. These tragedies do not show up on any balance sheet. But, they are the heartbreaking domino effect, collateral damage cost of war.
This is a clipping from Wikipedia:
U.S. Army report indicates military veterans have double the suicide rate of non-veterans, and more active-duty soldiers are dying from suicide than in combat in the Iraq War (2003-2011) and War in Afghanistan (2001–present).[11] Colonel Carl Castro, director of military operational medical research for the Army noted "there needs to be a cultural shift in the military to get people to focus more on mental health and fitness."[12]
This bears repeating "More active duty soldiers are dying from suicide than in combat in...current wars." WHY? What does this mean? Young men enter military service to patriotically fight for their country. Next they commit suicide. What happened?
Mental health? Does the Colonel mean that you should have a good attitude to kill? How does that work?
I just do not get it! Why do we have endless wars? None of the answers make sense to me. There must be another way.
Do we war for petroleum? Disgusting reason. Then let us stop all the caffeine fueled driving around in circles. Do our cars run on blood? The blood of murdered enemies? The blood of our soldiers? The collateral damage blood?
They tell me that Saddam Husein had to be killed. I don't get it. How many lives did it cost? Husein murdered his own people and raped the environment. For nine years we murdered Iraq people and sent our sons to death and raped the environment. Are we the good guys?
Then there is the argument that we must show strength in order to scare off the bully countries. Something like that. How is it worded? Is this true??? We out bully the bullies? Is that a sane intervention? What about the tactic taught in good martial arts classes? Just having the strength is enough, it is not necessary to use it. We are not really civilized. We are barbarians. We are not very highly evolved. Really civilized people work out their differences without resorting to violence.
We patriotically protect our way of life, they say, that is why we bomb brown people. But, we are over consumers, wasteful and arrogant and our children are spoiled. We protect a way of life that uses resources like tissue paper. Our homes are constipated with consumer goods produced by slave labor in third world countries. Our greed knows no bounds. Should people die to support our gluttonous way of life?
Don't get me started on a rant.
There must be another way.
There are some good things about America. Good people. Beautiful scenery. Free speech. I am exercising my patriotic right to free speech. I love my country but hate war.
OK, I must go now. I am going shopping, even though I already have too much stuff. I dare you to open my closet doors. Don't forget to wear a helmet for protection when all the junk falls out. I must have the very latest T-shirt and jeans. My old jeans are so last year. I will max out my credit cards. It is the American way. I am a good patriotic consumer supporting the economy. The debt that I incur will insure that I continue working my bull shit job, and continue contributing my stressed filled labor to the American way of life. Wrong. Ironic black humor.
America the Beautiful. Where is it? How does it work? How can we make it better?
