November 12
GUEST: Rory Fanning, US Army ranger with two tours in Afghanistan, peace activist and author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of The Military and Across America, talks about Pat Tillman, Army recruiters, and his support for Israeli refuseniks.
Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger's Journey
Rory is a bright, sensitive person who discovered morals in Afghanistan. He, of course, had morals before. He joined the US Army willing to risk his ownlife for the privilege of serving his country. It's just that once in Afghanistan, he realized that he was terrorizing and killing people for being in the wrong house at the wrong time. The troops he served with realized this too, but what was to be done? They all had become killing machines, in the service of god knows what. Or, as Kathy Kelley puts it, in the service of "the most powerful warlord" in that devastated country, the US military.
His friend, Pat Tillman, was killed by "friendly fire" for his consistently speaking out against how the occupation was unfolding. What is another US soldier's death in the grand scheme of things? We have troops all over the world, spending America's treasure on subjugating or killing native peoples. And killing a lot of them. Two or three million in Vietnam. Another million or so in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Korean War cost at least two million lives. And those are the big wars, not the mini invasions and occupations that are too numerous to mention.
Rory discovered his country in the Middle East, and he discovered himself. Never more would he serve the empire. Or maybe he would serve it in a different way, by going to high schools and telling seniors not to enlist. He is also serving his country by exposing the billions made by weapon makers, huge corporations that live off the jugular vain of the Third World. Why would they ever stop the empire's blood lust?
