HI Ho, Hi Ho, Off to Afghanistan We Go

Dear Mr. President,

A friend sent me an email yesterday, distressed that one of the little boys she used to babysit a dozen or more years ago is off to Afghanistan to “serve his country” “protect America” and all the other jingoistic claptrap surrounding our wars of aggression. She is particularly upset at the cluelessness of the boy’s mother and family friends who are “so proud” of Zach, who are “keeping him in their prayers and in their hearts” and thanking him for his service. No mention of the real purpose—to murder—or the likelihood that Zack will come home maimed physically or psychologically. Zack will not return the same boy who left. In fact, Zack is no longer the boy they’re keeping in their prayers, for Zack is now a professional killer, trained to kill, follow orders and accept that killing another human being is his duty. Too bad Zack never read Kevin Powers’ novel, The Yellow Birds, or talked to a vet who’s come back from this war with a clear-eyed understanding of the horrors of war and of the betrayals and hypocrisy of the politicians who send them off to war. Too bad Zach didn’t see through the propaganda that leads young men to believe they’re doing the right thing, the honorable thing, the heroic thing, serving and protecting their country from evildoers who would do us harm. But propaganda has now been institutionalized; the latest NDAA you just signed the other day permits the Pentagon to fund pro-military films like Kathryn Bigelow’s, “Zero Dark Thirty” possibly the first major recipient, glorifying the CIA and torture, glorifying SEAL Team 6, the highly trained assassins who murdered Osama bin Laden. Some, like Naomi Wolfe, are calling Bigelow a propagandist and apologist for torture, on the order of Leni Riefenstahl who glorified Hitler. Even Senator Feinstein, more hawk than dove, is upset, demanding the CIA fess up to what they told Bigelow since the Senate Foreign Intelligence committee found zero evidence that information gained from torture led to bin Laden. Meanwhile you continue to send young men like Zack off to kill and be killed in a war that has no purpose, that is immoral, that is based on ignorance, hubris and revenge, and they will return damaged and disillusioned, having protected and served not the country but the interests of politicians, the war machine and the profiteers. This is evil, Mr. President, it corrupts us all individually and collectively. If Zack returns home in a coffin, his blood will be on your hands.