War is a Crime. Remember That on Memorial Day.
If you’ve opened a newspaper, turned on the radio or television, or gotten online over the last few days, you’ve been blasted by a consistent, relentless message valuing the things that warriors do. Listen to that selective message of Memorial Day, and you’ll likely feel your heart stirring in pride when you think about people rushing off to war with guns loaded, ready to fight.
Isn’t that odd? Think about how effective the propaganda of Memorial Day has become, that the mainstream message becomes pride in people who go en masse to kill each other.
Murder is the most serious crime there is. When it takes place in the course of war, however, we’re supposed to believe that murder is an honorable thing. Stealing is a crime, but in war we steal homes, territory, and sovereignty. Destroying someone else’s person property is a serious crime too, but we applaud it in war.
Come to think of it, war gives people permission to go out and commit a huge number of crimes. The crimes of war take place on such a scale, with such a steady consistency, that war itself becomes a crime. War can be defined as a time during which people are allowed to behave as criminals.
Heck, let’s be honest about it, and stop all this mushy language about “those who serve” and “fighting for our freedom”. War is a crime
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