Afghanistan is America’s longest war....

31st July 2010

Post reblogged from axiom|echo with 85 notes

Afghanistan is America’s longest war….

nedhepburn:

Afghanistan is America’s longest war. Longer than Vietnam, both World Wars. Interestingly enough in the past few weeks a sudden influx of information has come in, seemingly out of nowhere. Perhaps in part to Wikileaks, but personally I think to someone like Brad Manning - a guy now in U.S custody on U.S soil who I’d imagine is getting the shit kicked out of him right about now for exposing the truth about the war in Afghanistan. So now, some 9 years after the war began, we finally get to see what’s been going on behind the curtain.

It’s not a curtain that you or I had a chance to place, choose, or enact. None of us sat down and asked for it - although many Americans, once faced with the stark and glaring reality of what “war” actually is - seem to prefer the curtain was shut again. It’s a lot easier to make decisions when the decisions are being made for you.

War is not a bumper sticker, a sign in the yard, or a lapel pin. War is not a finger pointing liberal angry at the way things have turned out, nor an irate republican who sees his values slipping. It’s men and women like you and me dying. Being shot at. Being blown up. Being scarred. Being scared. We’re running around with guns and money like we’re big boys but we’re still as scared as we were when we were fully convinced that there was a monster underneath the bed. Some of the men fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now were 9 years old when the planes hit the WTC. They’ve grown up - spent their formative years - in a country - world - at war.

While they fight across the fucking globe there’s a Silent Civil War going on here - a country so damn fucking divided it can’t even make up its mind if it wants to give every citizen the right to healthcare, or have it be up to the woman to decide whether or not she wants an abortion, or whether two gay men can walk down the aisle. It’s not a question of “Good vs Bad”. It’s Moderates vs Extremists; ironically, the same word - “extremists” - that we’ve been conditioned to be told we’re at war with. Are we fighting? What are we doing? There’s women and children there. They laugh like you and I. I shouldn’t even be having to explain this - it should be apparent that we’re all born from the same soup the fish crawled out of in the first place. Or Adams rib. Or whatever the fuck you believe in. Fuck off. We’re not children anymore and shouldn’t have a dick-swinging competition by the sandbox. We’re too old for that. At least, I think we are.

It’s a war on language. “Terror” and “Threat” instantly make the hairs on the back of your neck go on end - when the real ‘threat’ is not knowing what we are fighting for, or who we are fighting. You are being conditioned further and further not to trust your neighbor for the sole reason that he’s different than you. Look at the zoning laws in every major city in the U.S and tell me that that’s not legalized segregation. Why do you think the freeways are placed that way in Los Angeles? Why do you think that Chicago is divided North (rich) and South (poor)? Look it up - ‘White Flight’ - the post WW2 move from the city to the suburbs, which led to rapid urban decay - creating a “Them” culture in America that’s been simmering for years now, both sides throwing rocks at eachother for years. You’ve been conditioned to think that way your whole life, it’s not your fault, and as quickly as a lightswitch you can change it, reach across the aisle, and stop the fucking silent civil war…

… and call me crazy, but the huge leak of information regarding the War in Afghanistan might open up a lot of eyes to the reality of the situation, the bickering, the bullshit. The media hasn’t reported it because the media plays what we want it to. Otherwise we wouldn’t watch it.

Have you ever wondered why there isn’t a moderate American news source; how everything in the last ten years has to be EITHER Fox News OR MSNBC? How on the day that LeBron announced “his decision” it was reported that there was a major advancement the battle against AIDS. So, why is there such a disparagement? Why no moderation? It’s because they don’t feel they can trust us with the truth. Demand the truth. Demand the right to not just free speech but the sheer ability to see things as they are, not with a veil of insensibility and ignorance. You should be able to shake the hand of your neighbor no matter what is in his beliefs. There’s too much hate. You should demand equality, and the only path to that is the unfiltered, unabridged, unconditioned truth.

Thanks to the actions of Bradley Manning, now we have it. And thanks to him it might change a few things. Fuck, it might just change everything.

And I hope it does.

More pictures available here.

Damn, Ned - you socked this one right in the kisser.