From the Stoa this day I have been scrubbing off the teen graffiti from the pillar of my Doric Column, what with all the cultural teen pieces I have written lately, and thinking. Thinking about Memorial Day. It is not just our Memorial Day. This day needs to be thought of by other countries and not just our own.
No other nation in the history of the world has offered up more of its sons and daughters then has the United States. There was not a nation nor shore in the Ancient world that did not have a Roman grave, but that was in the interests of conquest and imperial service. The US has liberated a third of the world and much of its population at one time or another. Some examples:
Canada: sorry, we did try to pick you off in the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War, but each time you crotched us and made us back off. BUT, we have guaranteed your freedom since. Simply by sharing a border with us we will keep you safe.
Maritime Trade: From 1804 we crushed the pirates in the Atlantic and The Med that the major powers of the day were simply paying off. How many nations benefited from our intervention economically? To this day we keep the sea lanes safe (well, safer) for the world. Great Britain is a ravaged shadow of its former naval glory.
Mexico: In 1847 you were a conquered nation, your capital occupied and your future in our hands. That we took the American Southwest and then paid for more land speaks well for us. We had 100% of Mexico and decided that it was not in our best interests, nor that of the Mexican people, to fall under the US flag forever. There are movements in Mexico today that lack all reality in thinking that they have some claim on that land. Your nation exists only because we did not want it. Hurts your pride?
Cuba: The US acquired Cuba in 1899 and then proceeded to turn it into the jewel of the Caribbean. That it fell to Communism in 1959 was a tragedy. Under any treaty the US had ever signed with The Soviet Union, we could have invaded that island and restored its government. We had a claim on that land through conquest, much as the Soviet Union stole islands of the Japanese that they had occupied in their 14 day war with them. The Russians are still there, on Japanese soil, after all these years. Today Cuba is a pool of dreary, desperate people who long for the freedom just over the horizon.
Philippines: Acquired at the same time as Cuba, the United States let them go when they wished it. We supported them, nurtured them, and raised them from what the Spanish had left them for. Yet we let them go. We honored their wishes, just as we allow Puerto Rico to enjoy citizenship and Federal aid without forcing them to become a State. We don't conquer (American Indians excluded, sorry for all that).
South Korea: I just watched a documentary that was shot a few years ago and is a good example of what I'm describing. Veterans of the war were flown back and bused around to the various battle fields of 1950-53. What overwhelmed the soldiers was how advanced and completely modern South Korea is today. When they were there the houses were tin and thatch and the roads were packed dirt. Today it is cleaner and more modern than most cities in America. Their blood and sacrifice are wholly responsible for this today that they live within. Their future could have been that of a United Korea under the North. A peninsula of misery. The ROK soldiers were brave and spilled far more blood for their homeland then most Americans know, but it was the muscle and sinew of the American soldier that allows them to honor their dead.
France, Britain, Italy, heck Western Europe: If not for us in WWI and WWII there would be no modern Europe. It would either be speaking German or Russian. Granted, we entered WWI when most everyone was bled dry, but Germany had bested Russia and was about to crush France once and for all. Our sacrifice allowed a Europe to become the Socialist deadbeat that it has become today. Now they can barely bomb a backward Libya for lack of airplanes and bombs. The law of un-intended consequences again, I'm afraid.
This weekend we need to honor those Americans who have fallen or returned home to a future of disability and pain. They have given everything of themselves so that we can grill our burgers and take a day off of work. They have bled not just for us, but for the concept of freedom around the world for two centuries. Despite the Presidents of the day or the agendas that spew from Congress, our military has been there for us year after year. The best and the brightest among us, all for their own personal reasons, risk all of their days so that we can have the right to gripe about the price of hamburger (that is another blog).
Please take a few moments to thank those spirits. It is a small price for us to pay in relation to the price they paid.
Live well.
--Zavost
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