Today was brought to you by this Sage Francis song – this one goes out to those who are posting about veterans and Armistice Day, or wearing poppies. Who would you die for? ‘Just bring home my motherfuckin’ brothers and sisters.’ – amen.
It’s why I posted ‘Speak no evil’ pictures earlier including this one from Kandahar. I feel like I can’t speak because you get the whole patriot/dishonouring the dead and those who fought facism thrown back in your face. Which I understand, I respect those who fought in the Spanish Civil War, or in WW2. Recent wars are far less clearer, and I’d add that even those wars had scary levels of complexity, so many nuances, geopolitics, power struggles and settling of old scores…even if the reasoning was good (or I suspect accidentally good in the case of WW2).
So the whole celebration of veterans still bothers me because I can’t see how you can do it without celebrating, or at least not criticising, the fucked up system they’re fighting in, the military industrial complex, the stupid wars, the drones. I’d rather there wasn’t veterans, I’d rather there wasn’t wars like Afghanistan, or drones, or suchlike. Then I’d go and stand at the Cenotaph and bow my head, and celebrate.
Also The Boondocks = Win.
Amazing how this Sage Francis song is from 2005, but could have been about this week with Obama…EDIT: just realised I posted this two years ago! Hmm, it deserves a repost.
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