"Support Our Troops".

      I find it a strange cry, "support our troops". Most people are vehement in their condemnation of those power mongers who don the robes of the rabid dogs of war. They will heap vocal abuse on those sabre rattling Presidents and Prime Ministers, etc. who call for military intervention, invasion, aerial bombardment, or whatever their military plan may be. But somehow fall in behind those who say, “support our troops”, I find this a contradiction. Those rabid dogs of war would be impotent ,if it were not for those people willing to put on the uniform, pick up the gun, pilot the fighter bomber, put in the co-ordinates for the missile launch, and do their master's killing. There can be no wars without an army, no matter how loud the power mongers shout for blood.

    “Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe.”
 Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire 

  

    Look closely at the modern army, is it designed strictly for the defence of your plot of land on this earth? Wars are fought for economic reasons and composed of two main parts, the advocate for war and the army prepared to do the actual klling. Sabre rattling dogs of war would be no more than ranting idiots in the market square, if there was no army. To advocate the removal of the war mongers but leave the tools of war in place, is like asking a surgeon to remove half of a tumour. The whole tumour must be removed. The best way to “support our troops” is for the people to refuse to support the state's military machine in any way. Those who make the bullets, transport the bombs, build the tanks, are in the state's military machine and just as responsible for the killing of the Afghan child, the Iraqi bus driver, as the uniform with the weapon in their hand. To “support our troops” means supporting the killing of ordinary people across the globe. There is a tremendous difference between self defence, and a mighty state military machine that is used to wreak havoc in other people's homeland. 

Patriotism.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ’tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk