Just contemplating the Iraqi debacle. i heard an interview with the author of a recent book called something about the 'two brothers' - forget the exact title. This is about JFK and his brother.
What astounded me - I never knew this, but then I'm not a student of US history - was the extent of hatred for JFK as President, by the 'Military, Industrial and Political Complex' as was coined by his successor.
Especially the top echelons of the military hated his guts - because they saw him as a peacenik. he actually believed in the possibility of world peace. They saw him as a coward because he didn't invade Russia and Cuba - esp Cuba. But back then the military in the US was far more powerful than today, yet I would bet the same right wing 'slaughter-them-all' mentality is still as prevalent today in the US.
In Aust we don't have that type of virulent antagonism - sure we have right wing gun toting 'kill-the-Muslims' types. But basically Australians are a pretty laid back - apathetic is what I call them.
So there you have the 'power class' manipulating the world with its military, essentially for the sake of profit, and ego. But do they fight? No bloody way mate! And neither do their sons and daughters.
Does this constitute betrayal?
I have to say, having been in the military, that the professional soldiers do not fight for a cause. They join the military, and that is their life and job. Also they talk about almost nothing else - forever waxing lyrical about past wars. They can't be betrayed except by foolish officers - they are a team, and can only be let down by idiotic leaders in the field itself. Why they are in that field? - they don't care.
A nation can be betrayed. And when a nation goes to war, it calls up civilians into the military for the 'right of the cause'. When those soldiers die, it is on the conscience of those who sent them out there... perhaps i should have said sub-conscience.
But how are they betrayed?
They are sold a value of righteousness and courage. They are plucked from the poorer classes and sent on a 'mission' filled with all the old platitudes of Freedom and Glory. Are they platitudes?
I submit, those values are good values. Only the pity those who send out the troops don't also share those values - they are only into greed, and they betray themselves. those who die believing in the values of justice and comradeship, die with something worthwhile. It would be good to see them also add Wisdom, but that is asking too much.
When they realise they have been dupes in the games of profit and power by a safely shielded layer of their society, do they begin to feel betrayed? I would tell them, no. Their values are true, as long as they have held to those values, and not descended into barbarism. These are the values of warriors across all cultures.
I sometimes feel it reached a pinnacle in those cultures like the American Indian, where the fierceness of one's enemy was a thing of praise - far from belittling one's enemy, they saw him as raising one's own value - an enemy worthy of fighting. This is a value system between two people that has nothing to do with the games of fools far away - it is here and now. Such warriors bow to their opponent, as it brings great personal wealth to have the honour of a worth opponent.
For a person of knowledge, no one can betray you, as what you do, you do of your decision, and you do it in front of your own death - there are always only two beings in the field - me and my death, before whom I do my last dance... every minute of the day.
