The Courage to be Patriotic

This post is dedicated to Dustin, Joel, and the many other soldiers

I know and don't know who have gone off to war.

And for all those in the countries we send them to.

Bless us all.

KPOJ did an interview today with Chris Hedges which has inspired me to do this post. What moved me in particular to give voice to Chris Hedges and his latest book was when the author spoke of his intimate interviews with our soldiers finding their way to front page headlines splashed across European newspapers - but here in America the same voices of our soldiers were met with rigid walls of resistance and deafening silence. Shame on the American media! And shame on our tolerance of today's largely shallow, superficial, limited, and misleading reporting that we call "news". There is a reason why so much of the rest of the world knows more about our foreign policies, for instance, than we do here in America. Ours is a media that all too often simply leaves out what we most need to know.Tragically, too, Chris Hedges spoke in this interview of his belief that Americans do not want to know the truth about our soldiers and the truth about the wars that they fight and the occupations that they uphold. Chris stated his opinion that maybe in twenty years we Americans will collectively be wanting to know the truth of what is happening today. This saddens me! It is not okay to wait twenty years - not when there is so much suffering happening in the hearts of our soldiers today. We need to stop the collusion of covertly promoting the unspoken rules of not talking, feeling, knowing, and seeing the greater truths of war and its impact on our children and on all children. We need to stop promoting the "glory" of war. Or its necessity.

There is such a high cost, whether consciously or unconsciously, in choosing to remain ignorant. I say this with great humility as someone who prior to 9/11 did not care enough to want to know any depth about America or the world. I did not really know why our country chose to attack Iraq the first time. I did not know why all those people were protesting or what they were protesting (the WTO) in Seattle in 1999. And I didn't care to know. I was a deeply uninformed and apathetic American. I say this with compassion today for where I was then. And I say this with the deep understanding that I can no longer justify maintaining that ignorance. 9/11 was the life-changing event for me that moved me to go deeper, ... that moved me to want to know...

Without looking, it is easy to turn a blind eye and take on the arrogance of a superficial patriotism that is anything but courageous. It is easy for so many of us as Americans to bite onto those media soundbites and take for truth and fact that patriotism can be measured by sporting bumper stickers of support, praying, wearing lapel pins, putting one's hand over one's heart during patriotic songs, hanging American flags, and just being damn sure that America is the best nation on Earth and the most worthy of God's blessing. We all too often also unquestioningly believe that our soldiers only do the right thing and only fight to protect and promote democracy. Our veterans know that these are our expectations of them. This is what we have all been taught. Too many of our children return from war and occupation and choose to end their lives rather than speak the truth. They believe we don't want to know. Or that we haven't the courage to know. And so they suffer their horrific truths in silence.

In one week millions of Americans will drink and set off fireworks for the 4th of July, not having a clue of the veterans in our midst whose PTSD is being triggered by all the sounds that mimic those of war. Yet how many of us even know that this great day of patriotic fervor may be experienced as adding to the trauma of our veterans rather than celebrating their service? What does supporting our troops really mean? What does it truly look like?

It takes incredible courage, as I see it, to be patriotic. It takes courage to listen to the stories of our soldiers. It takes courage to understand why 1 in 5 or 1 in 3 (depending on which study you read) soldiers are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It takes courage to know why there is a suicide epidemic among our veterans. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml)

I have long held the highest respect Chris Hedges for his courage and truthtelling. I have seen Chris Hedges before, have read many of his articles and heard him interviewed on the radio and television, and I have one of his books and have also heard of his most recent one, Collateral Damage. A review of this latest book at http://www.tomdispatch.com/ states:

Pulitzer Prize-winning former war reporter Chris Hedges, along with Laila al-Arian, has produced a remarkable new book, Collateral Damage, America's War Against Iraqi Civilians. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with veterans of the Iraq war and occupation, it lays out graphically indeed and in their own words the American system of patrols, convoys, home raids, detentions, and military checkpoints that became a living nightmare for civilians in Iraq. Think of their book as a two-person version of the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier Investigation, this time for a war in which Americans have seemed especially uneager to know much about what their troops, many thousands of miles from home, are really doing to the "hajis." http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174939/chris_hedges_war_and_occupation_american_style

This is one review of Chris Hedge's latest book:
This book really shows how true evil masks itself behind such high sounding words as `honor,' `glory,' `dignity', `patriotism', `for god and country', 'victory', and so on; words that may have inspired a young man or woman to join the military (although many others may do so for other reasons such as economic necessity) only for many of them to later find that they have been duped and diabolically deceived by those so called `responsible' politicians who had sent them over there along with those other cowardly politicians who only pretend that they want them to come back home. It's only too late when these young soldiers realize that they are simply the tools of a greedy power elite who only seek profit from human butchery, slaughter and misery and these people could care less about the Iraqi people or for that matter, they could care less about the American soldiers who are used as sacrificial cannon fodder to serve some sick pathological agenda to `occupy' (read: conquer and rape) another culture. In fact, it's even beyond sick as to what goes on in Iraq. It's just plain evil. By reading the personal testimonial accounts of those soldiers who have been deeply traumatized from their experiences in Iraq, this book really gives the reader a feel for the reality of the horrors of war. The accounts given by the soldiers regarding their experiences traveling in the moving convoys is simply horrific and it's clearly a living nightmarish hell for not only the unfortunate innocent Iraqi's who are butchered from these convoys but for the American soldiers themselves who actually think that they are fighting for some greater `cause.' Any politician that can read about the things that go on over in Iraq and not be so deeply affected as to immediately put an end to this campaign of terror is simply not human. This is an excellent book and it does what it's supposed to do, which is to bring awareness to the reader; mentally, emotionally and physically, of the pathology of war.

What I know about Chris Hedges is that he has been reporting about "what it really means when America goes to war" for decades. He is no embedded reporter - he is in bed with no political party and no moneyed corporate interests - but rather is a journalist whose integrity and commitment to presenting the facts is impeccable. The author's classic and best known work is War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Here is an article first printed in Amnesty International Now magazine that describes Chris' experience with war as outlined in this previous book: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/War_Gives_Meaning.html. Chris Hedges understands the truth about what is going on in past wars and occupations and what is happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

May we support one another in stepping up our own commitment as individuals and collectively as Americans and planetary beings to truly support our troops - and all those impacted by war. May we commit to increasingly growing in courage, increasingly opening our hearts, and increasingly caring enough to want to know what it means, truly means, when America goes to war. May we have the courage to clarify and redefine what it is to be patriotic in America.

Peace,

Molly

War makes the world understandable, a black-and-white tableau of them and us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good; for human beings seek not only happiness but also meaning. And tragically, war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning. ~ Chris Hedges