June 30
The U.S. Left and Empire
Growing up in a dysfunctional family has its advantages. Whatever happens to you as a child, you think it's normal. It is only later that mistreatment takes its toll, when you realize that other kids were not treated that way.
My country is also a family of sorts. What American citizens thought was acceptable behavior was not condoned by the rest of the world. Our periodic wars seemed regrettable, and they certainly were dangerous to a young man fresh out of college. But they seemed familiar and even comfortable to us, even when we were being shipped out to war.
Later, those who survived their military "service" would learn so much more. It was only the US that was bombing and invading other countries. It was only our very own homeland that was assassinating elected leaders in other countries and replacing them with the worst of tyrants. My "God Bless America" nation was making life on the planet a living hell, especially if you were poor, Black or from the Third World.
PTSD, that catchall label that individualizes group suffering and guilt, is always there to comfort us with its blanket of normalcy. Perhaps that is how US veterans can come back from staring into the abyss of havoc. Screw normalcy; the US is a brutal empire, and has been that way since the end of World War II. It is now, and has always been the greatest threat to world peace in our lifetime.
There is work to be done, and US veterans are the right people to do it. We should use our blind praise from the US public to tell civilians what the truth is. For the rise of universal truth telling can bring empires to their knees.
