{"id":57072,"date":"2026-01-12T05:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=57072"},"modified":"2026-01-12T05:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:06:32","slug":"servicemen-arent-serving-their-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/12\/servicemen-arent-serving-their-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Servicemen Aren’t Serving Their Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.\u201d\u00a0 That overlooked sentence from Smedley Butler\u2019s expos\u00e9<\/a> \u2013 \u201cWar Is a Racket\u201d \u2013 hints at the racket\u2019s components, for every successful racket must have beneficiaries who are far outnumbered by the victims. \u00a0The retired general\u2019s \u201cthem<\/a>\u201d is the 2.8 million American men who were drafted and the two million who volunteered to fight in World War I, and they were \u201cused\u201d by \u201cwe\u201d \u2013 those who sent \u201cthem\u201d there.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u201d is the politicians and \u2018defense\u2019 contractors who profited from the war, and \u201cthem\u201d didn\u2019t, to put it mildly. \u00a0\u201cWe\u201d is an especially odd word to speak when it doesn\u2019t include the speaker, but at least it\u2019s revealing; if someone says \u201cwe\u201d while somehow excluding himself, he\u2019s either a beneficiary or would like to be one.\u00a0 But that wasn\u2019t Butler\u2019s style: \u201cI helped make Mexico\u2026safe for American oil interests in 1914.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s no draft today, the swindle must be more sophisticated, and the propaganda, more persuasive.\u00a0 But the president of the United States just rendered meaningless even the most aggressive agitprop by telling the truth<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re in the oil business.\u201d\u00a0 The U.S. did not invade Venezuela because some say that democracy is good or because others say that drugs are bad; Mr. No More Regime-Change Wars kidnapped a foreign dictator to help make Venezuela safe for American oil interests, and he used Delta Force to do it. \u00a0Everyone in the military swore an oath to \u201csupport and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,\u201d but as the elite operators just proved, those in the military are just mercenaries who, far from serving their country, serve only our corrupt government. \u00a0They were duped, as is everyone else who, under the guise of serving their country, signs up to instead serve the world\u2019s foremost criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s worse, being used or being persecuted?\u00a0 Have you heard of Operation Vigilant Eagle?\u00a0 This operation<\/a>, headed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, tracked veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and characterized them as extremists and potential domestic terrorists.\u00a0 Yes, after the government used the most patriotic Americans who wanted only to serve their country, the government then deemed those Americans to be a threat to their country.\u00a0 Those in power have a tendency to despise any obstacle to accumulating power, so it\u2019s no secret that most American politicians despise the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, which explicitly tells the parasites what they are not allowed to do.\u00a0 The theory of serving one\u2019s country has been thoroughly debunked by what occurs in practice: serving means performing as a political plaything for a corrupt regime or being branded a terrorist by the very same regime for following its corrupt orders.<\/p>\n

America is in a precarious predicament, as it\u2019s the country with the strongest military and the country with the strongest gun rights.\u00a0 Its politicians hate the founding documents that have helped make the country what it is, and those who join the military are implicitly telling the parasites, \u201cwe\u2019re here to ensure you abide by the Constitution\u201d; therefore, the regime must<\/em> maintain a global empire, which kills two birds with one stone: the regime keeps its greatest enemies abroad, and the regime uses its greatest enemies \u2013 American servicemen \u2013 to enrich their own interests, not those of the country at large.\u00a0 If all of America\u2019s foreign bases were closed and all of their American inhabitants brought home, there\u2019d be a revolutionary war, as these patriots would be far less likely to tolerate our corrupt government. \u00a0So, for the regime, it\u2019s better that the patriots die \u2018serving\u2019 their country \u2013 in a foreign country \u2013 than be at home doing what they swore to do.<\/p>\n

The military should do what everyone in it swore to do: defend the Constitution against all enemies \u2013 foreign and domestic<\/em>. \u00a0If that were to happen, there\u2019d be no justification for anyone to be stationed abroad and, therefore, no justification for standing armies<\/a>.\u00a0 As that will likely never happen, what can we do?\u00a0 So that those in the military are no longer used and abused, glamorizing military service must end immediately.\u00a0 Your author is not suggesting that those in the military should be disparaged, as they joined it believing that they were doing good; I\u2019m suggesting that parents tell their children that joining the military is a lousy idea.\u00a0 Have your children read \u201cWar Is a Racket.\u201d\u00a0 And what if the call to serve one\u2019s country proves irresistible? \u00a0Consider the Coast Guard and Border Patrol, which seem to be the only justifiable \u201cstanding army,\u201d as their job is to defend our borders, not invade others\u2019 borders.\u00a0 Our government sickens me, and if you\u2019ve made it this far, you probably feel the same way. \u00a0Why would you choose to serve a government when those in it quite literally hate you?<\/p>\n

Casey Carlisle writes in the Pacific Northwest.<\/em>\u00a0 He posts on X at @UncleNAP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.\u201d\u00a0 That overlooked sentence from Smedley Butler\u2019s expos\u00e9 \u2013 \u201cWar Is a Racket\u201d \u2013 hints at the racket\u2019s components, for every successful racket must have beneficiaries who are far outnumbered by the victims. \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[887],"class_list":["post-57072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57076,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57072\/revisions\/57076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57072"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=57072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}