Military Version Of Call Me Maybe Is Best—We Let Our Troops Die Without Caring Very Much At All

The song Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen  is sweeping the nation.

Or maybe it is done sweeping the nation and I’m a bit behind.

The New York Times recently reported that this song is the first ever to enjoy such great success without radio play as a part of making it a hit.

I’ve watched a number of versions of this song on You Tube and the best one was performed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

You see that video above. If it won’t play here than just click it through to You Tube.

Our soldiers have been fighting and dying in Afghanistan for a number of years now. We don’t care much anymore because our national character is so often just that cheap.

We’d let anybody die for us so long as we can live just as we please.

The soldiers you see in this video our are fellow human beings just as are the people they are engaging with in various ways in Afghanistan.

All people are complex and merit consideration as individuals and as who they are in the full context of our interdependent world.

Here is what my father—who died last year—wrote based on his combat experience in the Korean War—

“One thing that I learned is that the young men who fought in our wars should never be forgotten…Another fact I learned…is that millions may serve but far fewer fight. So, in reality, for many who have served, war is a glory-and-gory myth that feeds on its own legends and publicity. …Another truth I learned is that civilians are combatants in war–embattled victims perpetually on a losing side….That brings us to the biggest deception: The need to be ready defend our freedom if we are to keep it. Those who say that freedom has a price are absolutely right, and wrong: International conflict today is beyond ideology. The only freedom American and Russian leaders offer their  people today is the freedom to kill ourselves in the name of freedom.  This is not freedom, but allegiance to a suicidal death culture….Today, we are servile to our masters, mistaking economic well-being for true freedom, which is the freedom to live hopefully and not to die needlessly.”

I know our troops have to be fighting for more than our ongoing Presidential campaign where the two major party corporate-owned liars are discussing everything but the core issues of the disappearance of jobs in our changing economy and the realities of climate change.

Yet whatever that cause is, and whatever the virtues of service and sacrifice, something is obviously being lost on our troops.  USA Today reports that there were 154 military suicides in 2012 up until June 3. 

Meaning is very often hard to find. There is no shame in looking for relief in a silly pop song.  I don’t have a neat thought to round out this post. I just know that as my father said we are very much living in a “death culture” and that we really don’t care who we harm so long as nothing much is asked of most of us and even as others fight for us far from home.