*That is, the veterans who fought against the United States, or otherwise dissented from within the ranks of the Empire
Today we celebrate one of the several national holidays commemorating the imperial history of the United States. I type this on the day that started as “Armistice Day,” a day that originally celebrated peace. However, November 11th has since morphed into Veterans day, a commemoration that in its designation as a national holiday resigns our nation to forever war. It is a commitment to continue to have veterans that have been sent into harm’s way in far away conflicts who we can now heap our adulation on. This resignation to perpetual militarism, is less a pattern change than it is an acknowledgement of history and the status quo. As revealed by David Vine in his newest book, the United States’ of War, only in 11 of the 244 years of US history has the nation not engaged in military conflict. In other words, every generation of Americans since the founding has had its subset of war veterans. Complicating this manner, (as Vine shows) is that nearly all of these wars have been offensive in nature, often fought against indigenous peoples of North America simply defending their land, or foreign peoples defending their sovereignty. This presents a serious complication for me. Should I add another tribute to American veterans of war? These hollow gestures will undoubtedly be produced in an innumerable count today (as they are everyday). However, given the indefensible nature of nearly all of America’s wars, I do not see a need to heap unconditional respect to those that served in them. At a fundamental level, I do not believe the US military performs a service that even approaches the commonly purported service of defending freedom. Thus it would be disingenuous of me to devote an essay to the soldiers who carried water for purposes that I am fundamentally opposed to. This does not mean that I disrespect the troops either. It means that I see them as pawns (often out of economic circumstance) of fundamentally evil imperial structure that has made them victims, much as it has victimized working class people the world over. However, since the name of the holiday is now “Veterans Day” I will devote some effort to honoring the bravery to those that have fought and died in America’s (never ending) wars.
Resistance to the Continental Empire
In the recent and ongoing debate about Confederate monuments, the argument has often been invoked that the defenders of the slavocracy were in fact enemies of the United States, and thus unworthy of commemoration. In the regards to figures such as Robert E Lee being unworthy of praise, this is correct. However, while acknowledging that figures like Lee were fighting on the wrong side of history in their conflict against the United States, we must not forget the many heroic veterans of other American wars who fought on the “enemy” side. There are many such veterans that ought to be commemorated.
Fighting For Freedom
Given that one of the original sins of this nation is the practice of race based slavery, it should be a given that those who fought against such a barbaric practice are worthy of exaltation. Yet, when American school children learn about the American Revolution (a conflict which historian Gerald Horne convincingly characterizes as a counter revolution), why do they rarely learn about the enslaved people of African descent who fought in it? Perhaps this is because learning this would reveal an uncomfortable truth for American patriots. This is a truth that gives weight to Horne’s conclusion that the US war for independence was not a war freedom, but more accurately characterized one as a struggle to maintain slavery and aristocracy.. Indeed, the vast majority of enslaved people who fought in the first Anglo-American conflict, fought on the side of the British. On this day of honoring veterans, do a toast to honor those African Americans who took up arms with the British against the likes of George Washington and the slavocracy,. Honor them for their valiance and militancy in a (temporarily) doomed pursuit of freedom. When someone poses the argument that Robert E Lee fought on the side of maintaining slavery and thus should not be honored, agree with the sentiment. Then remind the author of such an argument, that George Washington and the Continental army had less than a century earlier also fought on the side of maintaining slavery.
The Only Defensive Wars Ever Fought in the United States
Among other original sins of this nation was the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the indigenous population. Even conservative types will identify that the United States could not have come into existence without this commitment to mass murder that lasted well into the late 19th century. That being said, those that resisted this genocidal onslaught and waged war against the US military ought to be commemorated. For a short, non exhaustive survey of indigenous resistance, we could point to Osceola and Billy Bowlegs, the Seminole leaders who gave the American military one of its first quagmires in the Southeastern United States. The Seminoles engaged in 3 protracted conflicts with the burgeoning imperial power. These conflicts were sparked by a frustration expressed by white southern aristocrats regarding the tendency of enslaved people to escape and find refuge in Seminole territory in what was then Spanish Florida. In a marriage of two of America’s original sins, slavery and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous, the US waged a war of attempted eradication on the Seminoles. The southern tribe fought an intense guerrilla war in the Florida swamplands, inflicting thousands of casualties on the white invaders. The protracted assault on the US invaders, would be a preview of future conflicts which the US army. would engage in. Decades after its venture into the marshlands of the Southeast, the US army would find itself again and again under attack in an environment it was unprepared for and had no business being in the first place. While the Seminole at large, Bowlegs and Osceola eventually were defeated (and the latter executed) they delivered a severe bloody nose to the US army that inspired generations to follow.
Most Americans attach recognition to the second US war against the British because it was the burning of Washington DC in this conflict that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national Anthem. However, the events that should overshadow the creation of that overplayed song were the actions of The Shawnee leaders Tecumseh and his brother Tenkswatawa. These two figures united otherwise disconnected (and sometimes rival) tribes in an alliance against the invading United States military. In a lesser known theatre of what Americans refer to as the war of 1812, the indigenous peoples of the midwest resisted and mounted furious and violent resistance against the imperial effort of the United States. Despite embroiling the US in yet another costly campaign of violence, Tecumseh and indigenous confederacy ultimately fell short (and Tecumseh was killed) of protecting the Shawnee and others from near eradication and displacement. Eventual president William Henry Harrison gained political fame for his role in violently suppressing Tecumseh’s alliance. If American history was taught in a more just manner, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa would be remembered and honored as martyrs of that early American war.
The list of indigenous war heroes that fought bravely against the United States is not short. This list could also include the better known figures such as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, who led the Lakota in their resistance to US settlement of their homeland. Among their military successes was the decimation of the US army’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The list could also include the reluctant warrior chief Joseph, whose own father had helped the legendary US explorers Lewis and Clark, but who himself was driven into exile and forced into conflict with the United States. The US government’s insatiable hunger for the Nez Perce territory left Chief Joseph no choice but to violently resist. Given the nature of US imperial expansion across the North American continent, all of the aforementioned were fighting an invading enemy. Therefore it can easily be said that all those who fought against Uncle Sam were fighting for a cause that was more honorable than any cause for war the United States has ever engaged in. After-all, the UN charter forbids aggressive war, and only permits wars of self defense. The latter by definition is the only kind of war the indigenous peoples of the Americas engaged in against the invading Europeans and later American counterparts.
The Real Forgotten Veterans of Foreign Wars
USA: Standing Against Independence Movements Since 1776
Let’s honor the VFW. Yes, there are many veterans of foreign wars worthy of our praise and adulation. Almost all of these were born and died in lands unjustly invaded by the North American superpower. A non-exhaustive list would have to include figures like Nicaraguan Augusto Sandino, who led a violent popular uprising against the US occupiers of his nation (US had invaded in 1912 on behalf of US fruit business) and the Nicaraguan elite. Although he himself was captured and executed by the US supported Somoza dictatorship, his legacy was carried on when it inspired the 1979 Sandinista uprising. Sandino should be added to those we honor on Veterans Day for his antagonism towards US imperialism and domestic oligarchy.
We should remember military leaders like Emilio Aguinaldo, Andres Bonifacio, Antonio Luna and thousands of other Filipinos that bravely fought in Filipino-American war. After being backstabbed by the United States in their fight for independence from Spain, these nationalists turned their guns on the new imperial occupiers. While the resistance was not a monolith (and these 3 were not necessarily allies) these resisters to America’s first large scale overseas military venture are certainly more worthy of praise than any soldier who fought in that war of genocidal conquest on the US side. Well, almost any.. More on those US soldiers that turned on their compatriots later.
More recently, military service worthy of veneration was displayed by the People’s Army of North Vietnam and their South Vietnamese guerrilla force, the National; Liberation Front. While the success of the Vietnamese effort at large is one of the most inspiring military victories in history, General Võ Nguyên Giáp is the figure most associated with the Ho Chi Minh led independence movement. Objectively how could one not be inspired? Seriously, the United States is a nation obsessed with the Star Wars franchise. This is a franchise which tells the story wherein the protagonist rebel alliance successfully defeated the mighty imperial forces, despite the latter’s superior weaponry. Sadly, what most Americans do not realize is that if the US has an analogue in the Star wars universe, it is the empire. What makes Giap and the Vietnamese effort so inspiring, is that over the course of 30 years, they defeated not one, not two, but three imperial forces; The Japanese, the French, and the Americans respectively. Compared to these bloated empires, the Vietnamese were outmatched by nearly any metric. Even so, they prevailed in sending the colonizing armies fleeing with their own societies simultaneously crumbling at home. For him and his Peoples’ Army’s accomplishments in anti colonial resistance, General Giap is far more worthy of a statue than most any US general, (or obviously any Confederate general).
Resistance from the Belly of the Beast
Turning their Guns on Uncle Sam
Of course, there are members of the US military who should be celebrated. These can mostly be categorized as those who have thwarted the imperial efforts of their nation through either desertion, defection, or other forms of dissent. There is a long history of members of marginalized groups within the United States turning on the US while serving in its foreign imperial engagements. These include the Irish American “Saint Patrick’s Battalion,” who upon witnessing the immortality of America’s mid 19th century war of conquest on Mexico, defected from the US army. They joined the Mexican army and fought bravely against the Yankee imperialists, using their master of artillery to deliver devastating blows to their former compatriots. Most were captured and hanged for their bravery in what was the largest mass execution in US history. Due to its intersectional implications, it is likely that this is an event that the leadership of the US military would prefer remain obscure. However, there are still tributes to the brigade in Mexico. It’s time this Irish American Battalion was honored in the United States.
David Fagen was similar to the St Patrick’s Battalion in his devotion to conscience over country,. The African American soldier was serving in the imperial effort in the Filipino -American War, when he began to question his loyalty to his country of birth. Fagen defected from his unit after determining that the genocidal racism his compatriots displayed toward the Filipinos was one in the same with the racism he’d experienced in the American apartheid state to which to that point he had sworn elegance. He joined the Filipino Army and fought bravely against the American onslaught on Filipino sovereignty until his capture and execution. Fagen and other defectors from the US army remain the only Americans who should be celebrated from that blatantly imperial war
While the St. Patrick’s Battalion and David Fagen’s dissent from within the ranks of the war machine should elicit awe and inspiration, so should the efforts of those dissenting through other avenues. Much of this dissent should be predictable given the fact that the US military has historically been composed of those from the lower socioeconomic strata of society,. The fact that a 244 year history of fighting wars for almost no discernible benefit for the working class of the United States has elicited quite a bit of dissent from its soldiers is hardly surprising. Among those from America’s warrior class that were fed up with their treatment from the institution was Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolution. Shays led a rebellion after he and his fellow vets had been denied compensation for their service in the war for independence. There was also the Bonus Army. These were the thousands of WWI vets who marched on the streets of Washington DC demanding their promised bonus for their service in the wholly unnecessary exercise in mass slighter that was the Great War. This act of protest was put down by none other than an officer core that included names like MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton. (names that will certainly be mentioned on this Veterans day) Aside from direct action such as this march, there have been activist speakers such as Smedley Butler. Butler served in the US military from 1898 to 1931. For those four decades he experienced combat on several continents in a variety of completely unnecessary wars. These pointless exercises in unnecessary violence no doubt left him jaded. After concluding his service he spent the remainder of his life railing against American militarism. In his post military antiwar speaking and writing, he even characterized his former career as having been a “muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
A Long Tradition of Veteran Anti-War Activism
In the present day, there are veterans of America’s wars echoing the same sentiments of Smedley Butler, dedicating the entirety of their efforts toward ending US militarism. These include retired colonel, and Vietnam War veteran Andrew Bacevich, who has spent the entirety of his post military career speaking and writing books about the flawed assumptions about US military interventions. His current ranks of dissenters also include Matthew Hoh, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and subsequent employee of the State department. In 2009, Hoh valiantly blew the whistle on the failed war in Afghanistan from his position in the State department in an effort to stop Barack Obama from proceeding with the planned surge. While Hoh did not succeed in his effort to stop the surge, he was proven correct when Obama failed in his alleged effort to “win the war”.. Whatever “winning” would have meant. Today Matthew Hoh continues to write and speak out against US militarism. In that same vein, retired major from the US army, Danny Sjursen, engages in regular tirades against US militarism and imperialism. Through his prolific writing (both in article and book form) Major Sjursen brings a perspective to antiwar activism that can be characterized as intellectual, poignant…and if you read closely… incredibly angry.
Changing the Culture While Accepting Reality
I struggled with how to write this. While I abhor US militarism, I do not hate the members of the US military who constitute the population being celebrated on Veterans Day. It is these veterans after all, who are among the chief victims of US militarism. By continuing to celebrate a day for veterans we are committing to keep having veterans, and to continue having wars. Thus, I’d suggest we move toward reframing the day. I’m supportive of the effort to revert the holiday to Armistice day. I’d be supportive of any move that reoriented our culture away from the omnipresent jingoism and militarism that infects nearly all spheres of our society. However, we live in reality,. So long as this day, remains “Veterans Day,” let’s celebrate it in a way that does not reinforce support for the most deadly force (US militarism) on the planet. Let’s use the day to celebrate veterans of America’s wars that stood against the evil of the US empire, both from within its ranks and without.