America, What Is It We Are Dying For?

[indigobusiness]

America, What Is It We Are Dying For?


"It is a sad day when a country decides there is greater honor in a soldier knowing “how to die by the rules… when the only important thing should be learning how to live like a human being.” So goes a quote from The Bridge on the River Kwai. Amazing how something from an old movie about war remains applicable when a country is at war. Someone must understand what we are seeing, and it makes me ask…"
By Monica Benderman
Project for an Old American Century, January 30, 2005


It is a sad day when a country decides there is greater honor in a soldier knowing “how to die by the rules… when the only important thing should be learning how to live like a human being.” So goes a quote from The Bridge on the River Kwai. Amazing how something from an old movie about war remains applicable when a country is at war. Someone must understand what we are seeing, and it makes me ask…



America, what is it we are dying for?



And what is it that my husband Sgt. Kevin Benderman, and soldiers like him love so much, that they are willing to fight for it, by refusing to go to war anymore, and deciding to choose life instead?



I have looked around this country at the cities, the power plants, the industrial parks, the car lots and I think—“this is what we’re killing for. Mechanized guns… and mechanized industry… weapons destroying humanity – one and the same.” THIS is what my husband and others like him will no longer fight for.



Driving along an interstate leading into any city in America, the view becomes congested with neon signs, billboards, every major chain store lining the feeder roads – some twice – one layer thick. It reminds me of the old movie sets – facades of a town – fancy store fronts with nothing inside.



Is this what we are dying for?


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http://www.vaiw.org/vet/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1173&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=9fa6d175db9323b6c8345d212029f886

[smirkymonkey]

1. Wow. Powerful Article.

So simple and succinct, yet it gets directly to the heart of the matter.

[indigobusiness]

3. I thought so, too.

Interesting approach to laying it out.

[Erika]

2. The introspection was beautiful

I think we all need to look into our souls. Especially W, his cabinet, and his supporters.

[indigobusiness]

4. Isn't that the truth...self examination would serve us far better

than self-centerdness has.

[indepat]

5. Fullfillment of the neocon PNAC agenda?

[indigobusiness]

6. It's a vision thing.

[Martin Eden]

7. Democrats need to promote better American values

Too many American values are materialistic values. Americans work hard for their possesions -- for the big house, the plasma TV, the SUV -- but do these THINGS really improve our lives?

We are a consumer society, working long hours to pay for all the THINGS the mass marketing culture makes us WANT and convinces us that we NEED. We have less and less time for quality time with our families, to grow as well-rounded human beings (rather than obese ones), while we convert the resources of this planet into pollution at an unsustainable rate.

Now we are engaged in a war ostensibly for "freedom and democracy" that also happens to secure the resource most vital to our consumption.

The leader of our country believes the rest of the world should be like us, even if the effort means that thousands must die and real needs at home are unmet.

God help us all if the rest of the world adopts our values.

We need to take a good hard look at ourselves and our values, and start living for some real human values that can't be purchased in 48 easy monthly installments.

Does the Democratic Party leadership have the vision or the courage to stand up for the values that a selfish hedonistic spoiled citizenry might not want to hear?