TERRE HAUTE —
For what purpose do our troops die?
Arronn D. Fields was 27 years old and a native of Clay County and was an Indiana National Guardsman. He died on May 21, 2012, after sustaining injuries from a grenade while on duty in Afghanistan. During his funeral service, Maj. Gen. Umbarger and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels praised him for his bravery and his ultimate sacrifice in serving his motherland. But no word can compensate for the pain and loss suffered by his family, and a question naturally comes up, why such a young man should die in Afghanistan?
The Afghans did not cause 9/11 or kill any American. Nor did they pose any danger to our USA. Then why did he have to go Afghanistan to kill the Afghans and get killed in the process? Certainly he did not die serving his motherland, but it was the military industrial complex that owns and runs our country, who sacrificed a precious young American life to earn money, power and to control the supply of oil.
Yes, we all will unite and fight and die if necessary to save our motherland if attacked by any foreign enemy, but the Afghans did not attack us. It is a sad and controversial issue that needs to be clarified.
In the historical past, the kings hired and conscripted the people to form the armies to kill others or die in the wars waged by them to conquer more countries. Then the world changed and after the First World War, the idea of nationalism and patriotism developed, which in truth became the shields of the political leaders to hide behind. These leaders instigated the people with propaganda, parades and patriotic songs to go to wars to kill or get killed. The people were to serve on a platter, whatever benefit the wars offered to the leaders, the industrialists and the businessmen.
To the leaders, the nation and the people were the means to be used for personal gains and to earn fame, but the millions who died and the millions of the widows and orphans of the war found nothing.
The military industrial complex gradually took over the real power and used the politicians as their front cover and the common people went on giving up their homes, families and lives. One cannot ignore the fact that patriotism has been nothing but a holy war slogan of the leaders to induce the “foolish citizens” to kill or get killed.
Why did the Americans kill 3 million Southeast Asians in the Vietnam War, who did no harm to the USA? And 58,000 Americans had to die for the misguided leaders, but what did the USA gain in that war? It earned the hate of the world and lost hundreds of billions of dollars. Why should our soldiers go to Afghanistan to kill the Afghans who did no harm to us or get killed in the process?
Should not we start to think?
— Anil K. Sarkar, M.D.
Terre Haute
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