It is apparent, from “so-called” Assistant Marine Officer Instructor Mark A. Mast’s letter on March 3 (“Board’s remark disrespects soldiers”), that jingoism, propaganda and fanaticism for serving the power of the state is alive and well in Ames.

In his letter Mast argues that we, as citizens who are often critical of the armed forces, owe a debt of gratitude to the service members who sacrifice their lives to “defend” our freedom, including the freedom I am using to write this letter.

In “defense” of my freedom, the armed forces have stormed off to exotic lands around the world, on the orders of the government, to bomb, napalm, vaporize and murder people who would, if left on their own, take my freedom from me.

Had the military not done this, Ho Chi Minh could have come across the Pacific in a canoe and invaded California or, during the Sandinista Revolution in the 1980s, the forces of superpower Nicaragua could have attacked Texas. They were only a two-day march away, according to Ronald Reagan.

I don’t have to worry about the imperial army of Iraq invading the United States either, and they really hate our freedom there.

Was our freedom really at stake in Vietnam, Nicaragua or Iraq? What bothered U.S. planners and policy makers about all of these places was not the amount of freedom they supposedly hated and wanted to take from the United States, but rather the potential for each of these countries to “take” the “freedom” of U.S. transnational corporations seeking to dominate their markets and cheap labor sources.

The threat always has been to U.S. corporate investments and not to the “freedom” of the U.S. population. Look at the planning documents. Threats to our freedoms aren’t mentioned, but tin, rubber, oil and cheap labor are mentioned throughout. The genius of the Iraq invasion was that we invaded before a government, detrimental to U.S. investment, was established by the Iraqi people. Now, thanks to preemption and the usurpation of Iraqi freedom, U.S. corporations control and dominate the Iraqi economy and its vast resources.

If you wish to fight for freedom, perhaps you could occupy the floor of the Senate until the Patriot Act is repealed, or maybe you could build housing in the poor neighborhoods of this country and maybe feed some people while you are at it.

It is important for people to disconnect the American people from the American government when talking about the abstract notion of “America” or about a person being “anti-American.” Until the armed forces actually stand on the side of the people, instead of the government, never claim to be fighting in the interests of the people.

Ben Slattery

Sophomore

History