Veterans' Day

Sunday was Veterans' Day, in theory a day to honor veterans, although
now it seems to be mostly a commercial day. I appreciate the
sacrifice soldiers make and many probably are at least partially
motivated by idealism (so thank you for that to any veterans or
soldiers who are reading). Despite this, I cannot get into the spirit
of the day. The idealism and dedication of soldiers today is usually
used for imperialism and oppression, aside from missions like disaster
relief. The American Revolution was a just war, and the war against
the Barbary Pirates and the War of 1812 might have been unavoidable
and defensive. The "Indian Wars" were mostly unjust, despite
atrocities against invading Americans. The Civil War was just,
because it liberated the brutalised slaves and to an extent overthrew
the planter capitalist class in the South, but it also involved brutal
aggression against the Southern states, for the industrial capitalists
of the North, not for the purpose of liberating anyone (after all,
Lincoln said he was willing to reunite the Union without ending
slavery if that had been possible, and the wage slavery and
sharecropping the slaves were liberated into is only one historical
step above full slavery). The Spanish-American War was probably the
first US war under monopoly capitalism and imperialism. This was
followed by our entry into the first major inter-imperialist war,
World War I, in which the rising powers of Germany and its allies
fought Britan, France, and the other Allied powers to redivide the
world. Veterans Day is currently on the anniversary of the truce that
ended WWI. In World War II fascism had to be defeated, but the great
powers entered it to see who would dominate the world, not to advance
the cause of freedom. There was a progressive element though, because
the intervention of the US, after receiving the Japanese attack that
the government appeared to want as a cause for war, aided a socialist
country, the USSR. It was a "good war," but not as good as many
Americans think (nor were we as pivotal in Europe as many think). It
should also be kept in mind that world wars result in victories for
the revolution, something those who want World War III (or IV,
according to some) should keep in mind now. After WWII the US has
been in numerous wars, still operating under an imperialist economic
and social system, to keep Korea divided (and the Republic of Korea
was not an innocent victim of aggression by the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea), to dominate Indochina, because France could no
longer hold it, to overthrow the government of a tiny island in the
Caribbean, Panama, Haiti, and now to nakedly dominate the Middle East,
because it can without the counterweight of the USSR and may have to
(as long as we are operating under capitalism, that is), to maintain
control as the US economy weakens. It is good that the US has a
tradition of civilian government, but soldiers should refuse illegal
orders and if enough refuse, what can the military do? Those who
refuse (like the many Israeli refuseniks who have refused to help
oppress the Occupied Territories) have the support of many Americans,
and the more soldiers who speak out, the more the public will
understand what is really going on. Most anti-war activists don't
hate the troops, and it is a myth that Vietnam vets were usually
mistreated by war opponents, but we do hate the unjust and illegal
missions, for which the government is mostly to blame, whether
Republican or Democratic.