1. America was the first country to claim that it was
a country at war, while the visual aspects of war
were far removed from the citizens to see. Even Rome,
or Britain, when fighting in far off places, never
claimed to be a “nation at war”. This is a
fundamental lie. America isn’t at war in the true
sense. If it was, daily life would be impacted for
every person in the land.

2. We know that the ‘volunteers’ have no choice. For
many of them, joining the army is the only way of
getting on in life. In other words, the army is
America’s dole.

3. A draft is a good idea in the sense that if
everyone has to go and fight, then most people would
turn against the war (especially in the case of
completely unjustifiable wars). In Britain, royalty
go to war, to set an example. In America they send
the poor, disenfranchised, immigrants (often non
Americans with the promise that they will get fast
tracked to US citizenship, unless of course, they get
killed first) and the rest of what the government and
their elitist corporate buyers, would consider it’s
disposable population.

So yes, reintroduce a draft with specific emphasis on
enrolling the sons of politicians, bankers, weapons
manufacturers, Halliburton, Big Oil, Big Pharma and
insurance, and rightwing media pundits that beat the
drums for war.

We’d soon see the end of it…..

Thanks, Ardee.  It’s big of you to say so.  I know we are frequently at each others’ throats so I just wanted to let you know I appreciate it.

ITW

Inherit The Wind, June 3 at 6:33 am

Just a note to laud an excellent post. I think your comment regarding the loyalties of those in war to their comrades in arms rather than to the brass or the politician hits the nail on the head.

My main beef with those who insult our troops, especially those who have never “seen the elephant” and do not know what they are criticizing, is how alienating such a position is and how much harm it does to liberal causes.

Mijan, June 1 at 5:36 am

Admittedly I reread your post at the urging of ITW and then reread the article in reaction to your criticism of my position.

From one Vet to another, and as one who returned from Vietnam as committed to stopping that war by any means necessary, I still find the article lacking in substance. Perhaps it is the authors reliance on the words of Admiral Mullen who harps on the separation of soldier from citizen when my experience is that war certainly takes its toll but for every returning veteran with adjustment problems there are scores who still function well.

I do not attempt to diminish the effect of war on the soldier only to state that my problem with this article is that it avoids the real issue, excepting in passing. No war should ever be fought, no matter how small or large, how long it endures without a draft being instituted. Involving every citizen, every family is essential to the process and would quickly end the control of our war machine by the MIC and our venal politicians.

Ironic that I have never been “thanked for my service” but I have been complimented on my activism and community efforts. I do not , however, object to those who feel required to make their gratitude ( or guilt as the article notes) known to those who wear the uniform.

ardee, June 3 at 2:41 am Link to this comment

Your screed is not only unproductive it is wrong. To say that all who join the National Guard, or even the regular army, do so because of an overwhelming desire to “play with toys” is unworthy of more consideration.
**************

It’s very easy to yet again abdicate responsibility and put it on the very young men and women who actually want to HELP our nation.  Some want to keep it safe, some want to help it through internal problems.  My nephew is in his 20’s and is a volunteer for Americorps.  Much of what these young people go through is also self-sacrificing, living in, frequently, horrid conditions.  Of course, nobody is shooting them which is a relief to me and his parents.

No, the responsibility for things going wrong is on Washington, and on us.

I’m not a soldier but any combat vet will tell you that their first loyalty is to their buddies.  Not the Army, not the mission, not the USA, not Mother and Apple Pie, but to each other. 

It’s not hard to imagine that when you throw a group of young people into such a kill zone, many will react by becoming monstrous. It’s easy to sit at home, write checks to GreenPeace (not that GP isn’t a fine org) and sniff about “thugs”.  I’ve not been in battle. I have NO idea what the terror is like.  But these people HAVE put themselves there.

And their lives have been squandered by cowardly shits like Bush and Cheney.  Cheney, who took FIVE deferments but “supported the Viet Nam War”.  THAT is the real monster—those who are eager to fight—with other peoples’ lives.

Mijan’s post is incredibly enlightening, but naturally it is ignored by those with blinders on their minds and dogma in their hearts, and kneejerks instead of thoughtful response.

John Wayne made a career of pretending to be a soldier.  Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable actually became soldiers and risked their lives.  Think about it.

berniem, June 1 at 11:09 am

Your screed is not only unproductive it is wrong. To say that all who join the National Guard, or even the regular army, do so because of an overwhelming desire to “play with toys” is unworthy of more consideration.

Craig—if so, humans will not last much longer, will they?  Technology progresses.

Leefeller:
Start with the documentary ” Sir! No Sir” . Watch the documentary, but also google the title -there are several links with documentation that give the numbers of desertions.

Nothing changes, General Smedley Butler wrote “War is a Racket”
after WWI and… what he wrote back then applies today!  War is all about opportunism as are most things which grease the greedy wheels of this alleged great nation of ours!

Surfnow, do you have a source for your comments about whole unites not following orders? Surfnow comment; “not to mention the tens of thousands of desertions and numbers of fraggings”

I was in Nam in 68 and saw some lax army units and heard of fraggings, but not wholesale desertions, not even from rumor control.

We use and abuse everyone in this country. We are all soldiers. We are all without leadership.

FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM
OsiXs (Common Sense 3.1)

Its absurd to believe that you can prevent war by forcing everyones compliance
and participation in it. All you accomplish is to fill the prisons as well as the
battlefields. No one is asking any one citizen to sacrifice more than any other for
the benefit of the whole. What we asking for is a way forward that values life more
than death, that denies the corporate state the tools of war and the threat of mass
destruction as an acceptable course of business. The military draft is just one more
tool for the state to use to manipulate the people to do their will.

The Draft could be reinstated with sufficient police power and propaganda.  But for what?  In any case, I doubt if the ruling class wants a large population of militarily trained people hanging around.

To the mothers on here who fear the return of a draft, don’t worry it will never happen. There is no way the Pentagon will allow a repeat of the Vietnam War ,especially from 1969 to 1972. It is one of the government’s most carefully guarded secrets just how totally unmanagable the drafted forces on the ground had become- that in fact is one of the real reasons the war ended- there was literally no one left who would fight. Entire squads and even companies all over Vietnam were refusing to fight, not to mention the tens of thousands of desertions and numbers of fraggings. The Pentagon likes the military just the way it is-  volunteer and privatized,  the young men ignorant, uneducated, raised on violent video games, stupid and malleable.

This is such a guts story and it takes on the truth at great risk. Yes, the military is doing the dirty work of Bush Cheney and now Obama.

We can thank them for their risky service without condoning it. And, the idea that they are defending our freedom is as crazy as Goldman Sachs help us all.

This is arrant nonsense!  What are you proposing?  That nobody say, “Thank you
for your service”?  The military has always been differentiated and separate,
whether volunteer or not.  Service members come to see themselves as discrete
from civilians, even family members, because they know that no one who
has not been in the service can fully understand what that means.  The draft
wouldn’t change that, because the George W Bushes and the Dick Cheneys would
still get their deferrals and their National Guard postings and their inexcusable
early outs.  Let those who see the military as a leg up out of their circumstances
have that option.  That doesn’t make them into mercenaries.  They go in with their eyes open to the sacrifices as well as the benefits.  And the rest of us owe them.  At least we can thank them when we have the opportunity.

In dealing with the mindset and profit in the ‘necessity of war’, there is only
one way justice can be served. No amount of complaining, blaming, facts
presented or truths made obvious on any blog or comment page is going to
change the way war and money are worshipped and espoused by Wall Street
shysters and complicit chicken hawk politicians.
Dialogue and votes easily allows two-stepping two-faced politicians room to
move and avoid commitment to the spoken will of the people. The tactic
needed is to remove the ability of politicians to move about freely.There is
only one way justice can be served: a massive peaceful march and sit-in on
Washington, DC and the offices of politicians throughout the country.
Peacefully force our politicians to listen to the masses of people that
‘SURROUND THEM’ and keep circled around the law makers until laws are
enacted to change the way money and military force are used by our
government. Oh, but wait a moment, I’m too busy trying to escape a
manipulated economy…
Making change is difficult. Persistence, determination and the will to sacrifice
one’s life for peace. It is this or just accept the servitude that is creeping over
us all?
To John R…fight the good fight and fight it your way! Thanks for your spirit.

Of course they know what they are going to do when they enlist.  And the basic training has them screaming KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL so if they hadn’t figured it out before I think they would figure it out then.

And that’s what they are—killers for pay—and its good pay too.  Don’t give me that crap about poor pay.  It’s just not as high as the mercenaries.  It beats working at McDonalds for people with no conscience about gunning down children.

To those who thank soldiers—what exactly are you thanking them for doing?  Did you really benefit from the murder of several million Iraqis so much that you want to thank a soldier for their “service”?  If you do then you’re a racist fucker, who thinks of human beings as cockroaches. 

But I never see people running up to and thanking actual exterminators for their service of getting rid of real cockroaches or termites or ants, or for that matter see any profession thanked, many of them providing very useful services to society, all of them far more moral than thug-for-hire.

Most of the enlistees do not know what they get themselves into. What ever reason they enlist for, they are working for the enemy of mankind.The military (world wide, not only in this country).
The less educated, the better, easier to manipulate.

I was in the American war in Vietnam, Plieku, in the central highlands, for 21-months.

I didn’t tell anyone I was a veteran until 10-years after my return.

The vast amount of humans on planet earth do not want war. They want to live their lives with some measure of peace and security.

So why do governments (and in some cases a split government in civil wars) keep the wars going throughout history?
Economics (re: General Smedley Butler) & power.

Will the people ever be able to control their out of control governments—I doubt it.

Young people volunteer for the military for many different reasons, but not many old people, who have been through combat, will leap for joy when their grandchildren volunteer for the military.

The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind. . .
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

To reinstitute the military draft ,in this country, would not bring an end to or
reduce the number of economic,religious or ethnic wars on this planet. It would
only further weaken the democratic values of the nation. The military draft is
simply using the threat of imprisonment to force participation in organized killing
for geopolitical power and corporate profits. It is antithetical to the notion of
preserving self determination and the human rights of a people.
  When mankind realizes that the ” sanctity of life”, is a valid survival strategy and
not just a platitude then we may have a future beyond deadly drones hovering
over our communities or the threat of nuclear holocaust.It is only natural that a
sane human being would want to distance her-himself from the looming
prospects of self destruction. Modern institutionalized militarism and perpetual
war does not a survival strategy make. We are simply heading further, “... down
the road feeling bad”, Cormac McCarthy style.

To Mijan:
I understand some of your problems, especially the way the Military is used and the bad pay. However please try and understand that when we say “Thank you for your service” it is not always an empty platitude designed to stifle discussion but rather an indicator that we want to talk about what happened and your views on it, but we just simply don’t know where to start and are afraid of offending a veteran. Because quite frankly, at least I, understand that you are right. A soldier is a regular person who has gone through hell, and we are never sure how we should approach that. That you have spoken your mind here is good as it saves us considerable embarassment from saying something like “Sorry the pay was crap and that we have done more to end these pointless and stupid wars. You deserved better and we let you down by regarding the Military as a quick fix to any and all problems instead of as an instrument of absolute last resort to be used only in case of complete despair and desperation with truly no viable options left. We’re sorry.”
At least that is what I want to say. I know enough people for whom “Thank you for your service” is just a platitude they mutter to shut any dissenting soldiers up. If the soldier protests he can be called ungrateful and since they know that many people are reluctant to engage with the issue for a number of reasons, he or she is left without the support a combat veteran deserves from their society. They do this, because although they cannot see a good reason for the wars, other than that if provides them a sense of false security when they go to bed at night in their million dollar homes and because some of their friends profit from war contracts, which has ever been an extremely ghoulish way to get profit.
At the same time some of us with our anti-Military rhetoric are not so much against the idea of a Military. I accept wholeheartedly the need for one. It is a big country, it needs a big Military. Yet we have thugs, like General McChrystal, or even slightly less crazy ones like Petraeus saying that we need to finish the mission, not to cut the legs of the troops out from under them. This even though when soldiers ask them, essentially, “General, what are we doing here?” They cannot answer and talk about something else. Since there has not been a mutiny, we incautiously assume that the Military is full of psychotics who think all civilians are soft idiots, even while they mindlessly pursue a crazy, unattainable objective.
Which really does break my heart as I love the Army, and I wanted to go to West Point. But I decided not to when I saw how low the pay was and what exactly the Military was being used for. When a General says “We need to tough it out for as long as it takes” they argue for perpetual war, and perpetual war is a way of saying “We can’t win, but we will keep fighting so we can say we did not lose, and besides losing would be bad for my career and no nice man will come and visit me with an offer for a million dollar annual salary or more than 4 times I could ever make as a 4 star General.”
There are a lot of problems confronting our nation, and the disengagement, and even borderline contempt many have for government employees in general is probably the source of many problems. Hope you will respond

Burkai:
“As a combat veteran and former black ops member,  I’m still waiting for the ‘citizen bitches’ to align themselves and march against Washington’s money sucking war mongers. What?...finding yourself without a spine and only a mouth to shoot off?

http://www.OneTao.com

___________

Burkai - I do not believe any on this blog questions your bravery or aggression towards getting the job done - or making things happen - or your ability to write a book on your experiences in Vietnam.

I do believe, and hope, that this site, and its bloggers are attempting to expose truth and find a way (peacefully) through dialogue to remove the current administration in America (by way of truth) and by way of voting in; new amendments, laws, rights, etc.

Violence begets violence. And then innocent children are killed.

I for one, am swayed at some level by the passion of your words. But, I will not harm physically those that I oppose. To do so would bring myself to their level. That being sending troops to foreign countries or even against our own citizens.

If humans are to evolve, violence must be eradicated. So, I will start with myself.

If there is any hope that a spirit resides within a human, empathy and non-violent action is the best way of displaying this inner spirit. I am not referring to any specific religion in the world when I refer to the word spirit, only the wonderful possibility that we may continue after the body dies - in a form that does remember, and can interact somehow with other spirits.

To suggest the reinstitution of a compulsory draft is to suggest a ‘cure’ which is worse than the ‘disease’.  Of course, such a development would likely stimulate some increase in activism against the wars because people would become less insulated from their desolation.  Yet in the like moment they would be forced to greater complicity in that desolation, that cruel and stupid violence.  We already exist under a state with enormous repressive power, repressive power generally used in tandem with and service to oligarchic class interests.  We hardly need grant that state or those class interests yet further sanction for their despotic projects by making compulsory enrollment in the machinery of war.

But to turn to the question of what is appropriate vis-a-vis the soldiers themselves, we might begin by asking whom does the US military serve?  The facts speak for themselves, and historically the US has used its military for the causes of the rich and powerful against the poor and disenfranchised.  From the genocide of the native peoples through to the present day ravaging of the Levant few who have looked seriously into this matter will dispute this characterization.  But unfortunately we live culturally amid a miasma delusions and lies that suppress these facts and hide them behind veils we would scarce rend: Stories of a great nation, America serving the good, the true, the just, the free.  It seems that the majority that enlist are spellbound by these tales, or are in circumstances that make the ‘choice’ seem not so much a choice but an economic necessity.  These circumstances go some way to mitigate their initial culpability in the sins of empire…but it is a mitigation which dissipates quickly before exposure to the grotesqueries of combat…grotesqueries which lead to either rapid disillusion or compounded illusion.  Which ever is the case, what becomes requisite is a sensitivity to the individual case.

So said, it is unlikely to be useful, rhetorically or morally to dismiss the returning soldiers as so many thugs.  But likewise, expressions of canned gratitude are perhaps even worse than useless, sustaining as they do crucial features of the narrative scaffolding which permits the edifice of perpetual war to go on.  Members of the military should be challenged to terminate their participation in that institution which purveys at present, to paraphrase, MLK, Jr., more violence than any other on the planet.  It is a difficult conversation because the consequences which can accrue to those would be so depart without Ceasar’s willing leave, but one that is nevertheless necessary.

Part of this involves being done with the moloch of patriotism.  More substantively, it involves imagining and creating a world no longer bounded by the walls of Colonel Jessup, but which realizes that it exists as one earth under a single sky.  In parting, I would affirm faith in the prognosis of Carl Sandburg. “Someday they’ll give a war, and no one will come.”

ardee: there would surely be less wars for power and profit if it weren’t for a continuous supply of immature youth who just love to play with big powerful toys that kill lots of people and break things! Oh, and don’t forget all that “Onward Christian Soldiers” bullcrap pumped out by our “patriotic” plutocrats and political elites for the greater glory of jeebus and free market capitalism! It may be the corrupt powers-that-be who profiteer from continual war but it is the gullible, amoral,and willing that so relish the “adventure” of it all! Militarism is all about death and destruction and anyone believing differently is a sociopath!

As a combat veteran and former black ops member,  I’m still waiting for the ‘citizen
bitches’ to align themselves and march against Washington’s money sucking war
mongers. What?...finding yourself without a spine and only a mouth to shoot off?

http://www.OneTao.com

From Dr. Lawrence Britt’s “14 Characteristics of Fascism”:

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism. Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights. Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause. The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Supremacy of the Military. Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Obsession with National Security. Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Obsession with Crime and Punishment. Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Peace.  (?)

Mijan, postures:
“You know what a Soldier is? It’s a civilian that has gone through hell. Stop the platitudes.”

No a US soldier is an asshole who has put other people through hell—for a lousy pay check.  A baby killer, that’s what you are.  YOU stop the platitudes.

“NY conversation we were having is suddenly derailed with a Pavlovian response: “Thank you for your service.” I try to brush it off. Why?”

Because you know you didn’t serve anyone but Haliburton and you’re a baby killer not a hero?

“To those who so easily insult our troops I would remind you that the blame falls upon those who order the troops into unecessary and illegal wars for profit.”

Fact: they are paid thugs who murder children. 

Nobody puts a gun to their head.  They are evil fuckers.  Sure the people giving the orders are evil fuckers too but if nobody saluted and said, “Sure, I’ll go murder children for you!” the empire would not exist and those “leaders” would be in a mental hospital instead of ordering their thugs about.

This is not demographically true.  It is a myth.

“we became a nation with a paid army, young men and women drawn from the poorer parts of the country”

Young men and women drawn from the psycopathic thug parts of the country (those not going directly into politics I guess).  The military feel themselves better of course than the general population they put down.  They are the elites enforcers like cops and prison guards.  Cops feel they have the right to torture general US citizens with their tazers or humiliate them.  Its the same with the other thugs.

It’s a thug class and its a huge danger to democracy of course, and that’s it intent.

What makes me cringe is the suck up to elites attitude this article has to the elites hired thugs.

“The reason for all this small courtesy is the guilt felt by the rest of us. This small band of brothers and sisters are doing our most difficult work, much of it as unnecessary as it is dangerous.”

Push-button mass murder of children is so fucking heroic isn’t it?

A draft would excite a lot of public interest in what the military was doing.  Therefore, in order to carry on the imperialism which is their lifeblood, the ruling class would have to impose a totalitarian system at home so that questioning imperialism and the wars which it necessitates would become impossible.  Dissent about war would become treason, and hate objects (Muslims?) would have to be identified and persecuted.  I can’t see this as a very good alternative to the present state of affairs, although some people would no doubt like it.

Excuse me Mr.Reeves but don’t presume to speak for me. I feel absolutely no guilt for what the troops do in my name as an American - in fact all I feel is disgust and revulsion. We don’t need the huge, privatized military we have, the over 700 bases or the immense expense. On those bases and in our many war zones I wouldn’t exactly call our troops ambassadors of good will- they are mostly ignorant of the languages and cultures, uneducated and brutish examples of Amerikan arrogance.We need a draft with no exemptions- then we’ll really start to see the ending of these wars of imperialism.

In the new American psyche, everything is now BNE (before nine-eleven) and ANE (after nine-eleven). And let’s not forget our wars in the ME have contributed to driving our economy and “freedoms” off the cliff.

How about an opinion from a veteran here. I served in the Army from 2000 to 2007… and I largely agree with this article.

Ardee, the author of this article is NOT insulting the troops. He’s examining a very uncomfortable truth about how our military is structured within our society. Can I tell you how AWKWARD it is when strangers find out I’m a veteran, and ANY conversation we were having is suddenly derailed with a Pavlovian response: “Thank you for your service.” I try to brush it off. Why? Because anything else feels like a bizarre sort of posturing, and really, I was trying to be a human being… not a propaganda poster.

See, with the Vietnam war, there was so much raw hate directed towards the Soldiers, many of whom had no say in the fact of their service. I’m grateful that we’re not getting the hate, but really, we’re getting another form of detachment. The civilians make themselves feel better by reciting the same damned line over and over again, like a mindless mantra: “Thank you for your service.”

I don’t want to hear that shizz anymore! You know what I want? You know what will benefit the troops? Have them stop wasting the military defense budget on civilian contracts that do nothing to improve our nation’s security, and give the Soldiers raises so that Private Joe Snuffy doesn’t HAVE to rely on military discounts if he wants a cup of coffee. Give complete health care coverage to all service members… or better yet, have our government do the right thing and start a universal health care plan for all citizens. Put money into education to create a stronger nation.

Just stop seeing the uniform first. You know what a Soldier is? It’s a civilian that has gone through hell. Stop the platitudes. Stop the tap-dancing. Stop the needless wars. A military force IS necessary, but we’re mis-using it, and instead of letting our nation have an honest discussion about the proper role of military power, we’ve white-washed the issue by training our population that it’s taboo to discuss these things. We can’t question the military! All hail the military! Thank you for your service! We’ll never have an honest discussion until we can get past that.

So… sure, it’s great that people are being polite to the troops in airports. Thanks for the cup of coffee on Veteran’s Day. But let’s get past the POSTURING and get down to the real meat of the deal. While you’re making yourself feel better by thanking a Soldier, another Soldier is dying needlessly in the desert. At the end of the day, we’ll never discuss the REAL problems and politics because we’ve created a sacrosanct barrier between reality and our faceless poster-child of patriotism: the American Soldier.

I’m nobody’s poster child.

What makes me cringe are articles like this one. Perhaps the autor might consider another line of endeavor as political writing seems not to be his forte.

To those who so easily insult our troops I would remind you that the blame falls upon those who order the troops into unecessary and illegal wars for profit. Many in America consider military service to be a normal part of citizenship. I suspect that any who have actually seen the elephant do not speak down to our men and woman in uniform.

I have seen the enemy, and in far too many cases, it us us.

Volunteer service is why there has been no protests and just passive acceptance of our many current wars. We also have a mercenary army that will fill in the gap and may eventually take the place of our young volunteers.

If the US reinstated the draft all wars would end very quickly.

And what of the militarization of the police in all the
major U.S. cities…

“Thank you for your service” indeed - like for murdering innocent civilians in an illegal preemptive war in Iraq
and a totally unnecessary war in Afg. where we are killing thousands just because they don’t want us there.
Oh - and “thank you” also for pretending to fight for a country of important laws that ensure freedom - which maybe once were worth fighting for - but which have been shelved for the duration.
Only the color of the uniforms differ - the barbarians still rule.

Perhaps people have forgotten the investigations of the air force academy and active duty units stationed in the various combat zones. Seems that we’ve got a serious cult problem what with the fundamentalist right wing christian proslytizing of our troops and the force feeding of negative extremist beliefs regarding the culture and mores of the civilians in the various occupied countries not to mention not so subtle jibes concerning the folks back home and their moral laxity and unwillingness to support fully the heroic and holy crusade of our beloved troops! Is it a coincidence that the economy is so trashed that job prospects even for the more educated of our youth are dismal? Just think if all of those young people with little skills wandering the country aimlessly. Don’t you think that maybe they might not cotton to being screwed over by the very people who have so nicely contrived to keep them occupied, out of the way, and doing the corpoatocracy’s dirty profiteering work while at the same time not having to confront why all of those good middle class jobs are gone and education is no longer affordable for so many? And what better way to keep them in line than pump their head full of jesus and hatred for anyone that is not “of the body”?

What about just swearing off the drug of war entirely, put that vast supply of money and effort into intelligent peace-building and see what happens.
Who knows, everything everywhere might be a hell of a lot better for everybody than it is now.

War is a dirty business.  Peace is a clean business.
War kills.  Peace preserves life.

War creates enemies.  Peace creates friends.