This article was first published in April 2015.
Each morning I walk throughout my quiet neighborhood here in Central Florida noticing more and more homes with giant U.S. flags hanging from the garage tops.
Occasionally, if I know the neighbor with the flag, I ask what is the reason he or she keeps it up so long. The answer is always the same:
“To support our troops in the Middle East and the war on terror.”
It is thus useless to conduct a debate, as most of these folks happen to be senior citizens even older than me, the baby boomer.
And, if for some reason the neighbor hanging the sign happens to be a man or woman younger than yours truly, chances are any forthcoming “conversation” will get testy to say the least. Having stood weekly on street corners in my town with anti phony war signs for 10 years can attest to that fact. The propaganda sadly does run that deep!
So many Americans really do not have a correct sense of history. When this writer uses Nazi Germany as an example of an “empire on steroids” and compares it to our own, the critics go wild.
“How can you dare compare what the Nazis did to what our country is doing or done?” Well, let’s take a look back at then and now.
Let’s take the GI on the ground first. When Germany began its assault on Europe, many German soldiers, not the true believer Waffen SS, really bought into the skillful propaganda spun by Goebbels and others.
The Versailles Diktat, as it was really known by Germans after World War I, did in fact destroy any hope for economic recovery. Most German leaders and students of history alike agreed that Germany was excessively punished by the victors of World War I, which in fact aided the rise and popularity of parties like the National Socialists AKA Nazis.
When Hitler and his gang assumed power, a majority of German citizens, including most of the soldiers in uniform, believed in whatever lies they were told about their European rivals Poland, France, England and Russia. So, when the Wehrmacht marched into those countries, the troops believed in the need for war. As time wore on and the atrocities and cruelties mounted, and victories turned into defeats, the morale level lowered.
Now, isn’t that what happened to our own soldiers after we did the dirty deed and invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq? Many returning soldiers, not the true believer right wing types (American Sniper lovers) now see the futility of our country’s efforts in the Middle East. Hope springs eternal.
During the reign of the Nazi empire or Third Reich, the average hard working German citizen for the most part loved the economic boom occurring in the 1930s. Who wouldn’t love more jobs, higher wages, food on the table etc?
Factor out those who “knew better” about the brutality of the regime against not only Jews but unions and basically anyone who questioned Hitler and his gang (duh, like the fact that they outlawed any other political party but their own). What was left was a silent majority (wonder if Nixon and Agnew got inspiration from that?) of everyday Germans who reveled in the current better times.
They “drank the Kool-Aid” and hung the Swastika flags from their homes to support their brave troops. Need one say more? Cannot you the reader connect the dots?
How many of our fellow Americans really give a **** at what we have and are doing in the Middle East? Who cares about some rag head child or elderly person blown away by a smart bomb or smart drone missile?
If every good and decent neighbor of mine, the ones who proudly hang those flags, could watch the 2007 YouTube video of the Apache helicopter massacre of 19 Iraqi men who were just walking along in the daylight sun (and of course the two young kids in the parked car who were seriously maimed)… if they would listen closely and hear the audio of the soldiers in the copter who did the dirty deed… as if it was some video game! Perhaps then the bridge across the Rubicon would materialize.
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This article was originally published on World News Trust in April 2015.
Philip A Farruggio is a son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He has been a free lance columnist since 2001, with over 300 of his work posted on sites like Consortium News, Information Clearing House, Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust, Op Ed News, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Activist Post, Sleuth Journal, Truthout and many others. His blog can be read in full on World News Trust, whereupon he writes a great deal on the need to cut military spending drastically and send the savings back to save our cities. Philip has a internet interview show, ‘It’s the Empire… Stupid’ with producer Chuck Gregory, and can be reached at [email protected].
