by Larry Pinkney

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”
—Howard Zinn

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
—Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]

Yet again the U.S. government and its corporate-stream media propaganda arm are obfuscating the narrative and distracting the populace of this nation around the issue of the role of women and gays in the U.S. military.

Sadly, it appears that many women, black people, other ‘people of color,’ and gays have, in this 21st century, been so thoroughly brainwashed as to actually want to be a part of ‘frontline combat’ in this nation’s infamous military killing machine. Instead of seriously questioning and opposing the bloody role of the U.S. military—that is being used as cannon fodder and simultaneously as butchers of ordinary everyday people in Africa, Asia, and the ‘Middle East,’ etc. for the U.S. corporate elite. Far too many persons, without utilizing critical thought, are actually clamoring to be an integral part of the U.S. killing machine. This plays into the hands of the U.S. corporate/military elite and is utterly unacceptable.

Notwithstanding the very real economic draft (i.e., the de facto horrible economic conditions in the U.S. that compel many poor people to join and take their chances in the U.S. military) there is a woefully inadequate educational process that clearly explains to everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people whose interests the U.S. military killing machine actually serves. These interests have nothing whatever to do with genuinely serving ordinary people of this nation or the world, and everything to do with maintaining the status-quo on behalf of the Wall Street corporate elite. This also serves to keep ordinary people distracted, divided, manipulated, and powerless—as the perpetual pawns of and for the U.S. corporate-owned system.

The current warmongering, ‘Kill List,’ NDAA signing, predator drone missile U.S. president, acting in his capacity as the chief Wall Street puppet and head of the U.S. Empire, has thus far been adroit in obfuscating, thwarting, and distracting many ordinary people in this nation from recognizing and pursuing what is in their own best collective political, economic, and social interests. Nevertheless, this veneer is not impenetrable, and can and must be exposed and reversed.

Both the corporate-owned Democrat and Republican parties in the U.S. are hell bent on, in the words of Malcolm X, continuing “the system of exploitation.” They pursue this by deliberately keeping the masses ignorant, distracted, misinformed, confused, and divided. Moreover, the gatekeepers (misleaders) of the so-called left and right in this nation are deeply complicit in this deceit and treachery against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people. They are, again in the words of Malcolm X, “the foxes and wolves” of this hypocritical and exploitative system and, in reality, they work together, to the great detriment of everyday people in this nation and throughout [Mother Earth].

Nevertheless, there is still hope. And that hope is to be found in the minds and hearts of everyday people—we the people. Always remember the words of Steve Biko, when he said, “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

It is the everyday ordinary people of all colors who must be critical thinkers and doers, and in so doing, snatch that “potent weapon” from the hands of our systemic oppressors. We can do this. We must do this. We are doing this in this most necessary long and protracted struggle. Be creative and remain determined!

Remember: Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!

http://www.blackactivistwg.org/blog/the-u-s-military-killing-machine-for-the-empire/

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BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)