If there's ONE topic that has been treated with a complete lack of respect in this presidential campaign, it's that of war. We have one party who thinks that the solution to political problems is to rain fire from the heavens like an avenging god, and another who thinks the same thing but likes to pretend that it doesn't really count if the body bags aren't on TV.

I will start with a personal definition that flies in the face of conventional wisdom and mainstream media narratives. ANY time men and women in uniform are engaged in conflict, it's a war. The attempt to muddy the waters has been going on since World War Two, ever since the War Department was Renamed the Department Of Defense in an attempt to paint us as always the good guys. It is no coincidence that Orwell wrote his seminal work "1984" the exact same year.

"Police Actions" are a fucking war. "Training Missions" are a damned war. "Counter-insurgency Operations" are a war against the native population of a country, on behalf of the rich of that country. I could go on but you get the point. The legacy of the alliance between the industrial might of this country and the military structure has been exactly what Eisenhower warned us about: War perpetrated in the name of profit.

We have so corrupted the training and profession of soldier that it has in all purposes become a different one. We do not employ soldiers in our country. We employ mercenaries who will do whatever is ordered for money. This is by no means the fault of the idealistic youth who signs up for the service, or the desperate man who does the same. This can be laid solely at the feet of the politicians who have corrupted the idea of defense into a global doctrine of control. We have replaced the concept of duty with that of following orders: A significant change in the concept of a soldier. While one is based on the concept of personal responsibility, the other completely abdicates the same, relegating that burden to that of the soldier's "Betters". In essence, it has transformed the free citizen with duty into a slave on a leash.

Look at how we treat our veterans. We treat them as burdens to be shunted to the side, or left to rot in homeless camps, their usefulness as veterans eclipsed by the shiny new toy or young buck to be expended. The best a veteran can do for this country seems to be to die quickly, and spare the further embarrassment. Mental Health and the other wounds of war are a burden upon the populace. We have become a red mark in a flawless black inked ledger.

This has come about because of the insulation from consequences that the political class in this country enjoys and engenders. While on occasion they will allow a veteran to take their fortitude out of the mothballs and parade it at a campaign event, for the most part it is far more preferable to use the current crop of recruits as a backdrops for their institution of some new corporate bailout. There are no consequences for feeding grist into the mill of war, and in fact the behavior is rewarded. All of this is hidden behind nebulous talk of the world being far more dangerous than the average person can understand, and urge to calm in the face of monstrous decisions. Perhaps we should just be happy to be the Betas in this society, freed of the burdens of command.

What is the solution? TALK about it! This system only exists because it is not paid attention to. As long as it is allowed to fester in the dark, the foul toadstool continues to swell with stolen nutrients from the decaying body politic. Politicians who use the rhetoric of war must be called out for the chicken hawk behavior that enriches the corporations at the expense of the rest of us.

And get angry. Get livid. There's a reason that fear is the overwhelming theme of nearly every election. Fear is the opposite of anger. It is a neutralizing agent against active and constructive motion. In fact the entire concept of righteous anger has been subtly weakened in our public discourse, with anger only relegated to the descriptions of those whom the system wants us to fear. They don't want you angry, they want you calm, since calm people are so much easier to feed into the slaughterhouse.

I end not with angry music, but with hopeful music. Anger has its righteous and honored place, but it is only a spur to action. While anger gets you off your ass, it's only the dream of something better that keeps you there.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYA_0R7Vw1s]