The Royal
Canadian Legion has persuaded the government to pick up the interned body
of a dead Canadian soldier from World War I and fly it back to Canada to
be re-interred under a new monument in Ottawa.
This monument will be called the “tomb of the unknown soldier”
and will be reverentially saluted by all Legion members who, when they
aren’t busy trying to prevent Sikhs from entering their pubs, like to
parade around insisting that the only way to prevent another war is to arm
ourselves to the teeth and adopt a belligerent attitude to all foreigners.
If I had the
money, I would like to set up a counter-monument:
the Tomb of the Unknown Fool.
And I would demand a body too.
There’s lots to go around. Millions.
Who says only the pro-war faction gets to haul bones around at taxpayers’ expense?
And I want a ceremony too: with
a bunch of clowns and folk singers. We
would sing songs, maybe even with bagpipes, and celebrate the fact that
most people nowadays are smart and educated and would gladly refuse to
travel to some rat and leech-infested bog in Europe to shoot at Germans or
French or Italians for no other reason than that the Canadian
Establishment, the owners and movers of capital in this country, said they
should. To defend the
motherland…. To preserve
nations’ honor…. To make
the world safe for freedom and democracy….
Right.
The confusing
thing about the issue, in the minds of most Canadians, is the fact that
virtually everyone proclaims him or herself to be opposed to war, and
visibly moved by the sacrifices of those brave young men who were shipped
overseas to die on the alters of British and French Generals’ egos.
It’s an apple pie kind of thing: who would NOT wish to honor men
who gave their lives in war.
But the
blurring of motivations here benefits the pro-war faction.
Pacifists feel great sorrow, of course, for the loss of life in
war, and in joining the mourning, respectfully, even feelingly, appear to
affirm the political agenda of the Legion and the army bands.
Yes, everyone
says he is against death and suffering and anguish.
That means nothing. The
difference is, the Legion and its followers are clearly quite willing to
inflict suffering and death on others if it preserves something “pure”
(and mythic) like “honor” or “liberty” or the heritage of our
forefathers. Listen to the
language with which they embellish the remains of that poor sucker:
He was noble and proud and courageous and selfless and honorable.
He may have been. Without
a doubt, he was a sucker. He
believed his government when the government said its cause was righteous. He trusted in his commanding officers even when they were
complete fools. He obeyed
orders without question, even when the orders were stupid.
What suckers!
What foolish, gullible, ignorant people!
What did the dead of WWI sacrifice their lives for?
Which side was honorable and right and just?
What were they fighting for?
General Motors
and Exxon.
Goodyear and
Rockefeller.
Dupont and
Macy’s.
George Bush
Sr., with toady Billy Graham at his side, proclaimed that the American-led
armies of the Gulf War were fighting for democracy and freedom. Kuwait-- you remember, don’t you?-- had to be rescued from
the forces of darkness. Right.
Now we know that most of George Bush Sr.’s illustrations were
lies.
They were
fighting for Exxon and Shell and Amoco and BP and Texaco.
It was the biggest tax subsidy of modern times: billions of dollars
of military hardware, paid for by you and me.
The Pentagon employed as security guards for oil refineries.
Who pays the
price of war?
Who always
pays the price of war?
