
Yes, we must have a Defense Department which should help to protect the interests of "We, the People." I’m not saying otherwise. Our fighting men and women are important and necessary.
Our levels of freedom and security are not “free.”
Warriors, and others like us, are often under-appreciated, taken for granted and misunderstood. I will always love, respect and stand by my brothers and sisters who, like me, came from the bottom of this society and who served in uniform beside me in dangerous places.
I don’t claim in any way, shape or form to be any different than any other veteran who went overseas and did his or her duty as we were trained for and understood our duty to be at the time. I don’t claim to speak for any other veteran. I can only speak for myself. I can only speak to what I learned on a deep, personal level from my experience in Iraq.
This experience made me feel somewhat alienated and separated from many of my countrymen upon returning home, meaning those countrymen caught up in the external aspects of life here, who didn't seem to know a war was going on, or even care. But the experience of being overseas also brought me much closer to all of the world’s people, and helped open my eyes fully to the truth that we are all brothers and sisters, no matter what we look like or what culture we come from.
In reality, what happens to one person in any part of the world happens to all people all over the world.
What I came to understand through the Iraq War and through everything else in my life is quite different from the so-called “national conversation,” myths, fairy tales and outright lies that far too many of our countrymen blindly believe in and accept without questioning deeply enough. Where is the real national debate? Where is the discussion, the conversation? Why is everyone hiding their heads in the sand and moving along with their lives as if nothing is happening that's undermining "We, the People" completely?
Over time, what I’ve learned is a far cry from what most of us were taught in public school. It’s also quite different from the grand illusion of the so-called “two-party system,” or the rigid ideologies that purport to answer every one of life’s questions. Many of these same folks, still believing they are “free,” build ideological houses with no doors and no windows. They believe only in their beliefs. And what is worse, they put all their faith into a person, or one man, or a group of people. They join "cults of personality," putting pictures of politicians they've never met on their refrigerators beside photos of their family. But it is extremely dangerous to put all of your hope and faith into false "messiahs" and the promises of the State. Belief in belief is dangerous.
Better to fight for and suffer for a wider knowledge and understanding and pay the true price. No true cost can truly be passed on to others in reality.
Can we find ourselves? Can we, as a people, find our True North?
(Note: Share this post! This is the third of a series of posts by author and Iraq War veteran Theodore Webb concerning questions about security and the true nature of the State. For a full description of the great dangers of the surveillance-police State, read my novel, "The STARLING Connection.")
Our levels of freedom and security are not “free.”
Warriors, and others like us, are often under-appreciated, taken for granted and misunderstood. I will always love, respect and stand by my brothers and sisters who, like me, came from the bottom of this society and who served in uniform beside me in dangerous places.
I don’t claim in any way, shape or form to be any different than any other veteran who went overseas and did his or her duty as we were trained for and understood our duty to be at the time. I don’t claim to speak for any other veteran. I can only speak for myself. I can only speak to what I learned on a deep, personal level from my experience in Iraq.
This experience made me feel somewhat alienated and separated from many of my countrymen upon returning home, meaning those countrymen caught up in the external aspects of life here, who didn't seem to know a war was going on, or even care. But the experience of being overseas also brought me much closer to all of the world’s people, and helped open my eyes fully to the truth that we are all brothers and sisters, no matter what we look like or what culture we come from.
In reality, what happens to one person in any part of the world happens to all people all over the world.
What I came to understand through the Iraq War and through everything else in my life is quite different from the so-called “national conversation,” myths, fairy tales and outright lies that far too many of our countrymen blindly believe in and accept without questioning deeply enough. Where is the real national debate? Where is the discussion, the conversation? Why is everyone hiding their heads in the sand and moving along with their lives as if nothing is happening that's undermining "We, the People" completely?
Over time, what I’ve learned is a far cry from what most of us were taught in public school. It’s also quite different from the grand illusion of the so-called “two-party system,” or the rigid ideologies that purport to answer every one of life’s questions. Many of these same folks, still believing they are “free,” build ideological houses with no doors and no windows. They believe only in their beliefs. And what is worse, they put all their faith into a person, or one man, or a group of people. They join "cults of personality," putting pictures of politicians they've never met on their refrigerators beside photos of their family. But it is extremely dangerous to put all of your hope and faith into false "messiahs" and the promises of the State. Belief in belief is dangerous.
Better to fight for and suffer for a wider knowledge and understanding and pay the true price. No true cost can truly be passed on to others in reality.
- Too many are also far too afraid and far too willing to hand over everything our fighting men and women have fought for to the State, meaning a few people at the top who are controlling the State and using the State to advance only their interests at the expense of everyone else. The interests of the State are in fact NOT the interests of “We, the People,” but are the interests of whichever group of gangsters, thieves and terrorists which has hijacked the State.
- Every society has such a group and no society is "exceptional" in this regard. It is the group at the top which the State actually serves, the aristocracy, often its the thugs, gangsters, thieves and criminals at the top of the corruption. In our "system," the group which has managed to strong arm its way to the top are those falsely “profiting” from so-called “bail outs,” financial tyranny and the blood of our brothers and sisters in arms.
- The State often does not serve “We, the People.” The State and "We, the People" are two different things.
- The Bill of Rights is intended to protect the private sphere and the rights of the people. If one right, such as "We, the People's" fundamental human right NOT to be watched by the State, goes by the wayside, then all of our rights go by the wayside. Too many people falsely believe that "freedom is free" and take for granted the level of rights that our World War II veterans and others have helped us to achieve.
- We're lost in wishful thinking and put false faith into human-manufactured constructs such as the current State. We have lost sight of "self-evident" truths and are lost as a nation.
Can we find ourselves? Can we, as a people, find our True North?
(Note: Share this post! This is the third of a series of posts by author and Iraq War veteran Theodore Webb concerning questions about security and the true nature of the State. For a full description of the great dangers of the surveillance-police State, read my novel, "The STARLING Connection.")