Russia's Crimes Don't Absolve the US
Sugarcoating history doesn't change the past, and forced patriotism is dangerous.
At the height of the Great Depression in 1932, the Bonus Army marched on Washington to demand the eight-year overdue promised payment for their compulsory 1917–1918 WWI service. In solidarity, veterans of every race and ethnicity flooded the Capitol, ignoring Jim Crow and setting up shantytowns to await the outcome of a proposed repayment Bill. Sadly, the Senate declined to pay the bonus until 1945, almost thirty years after the war.
When the vets refused to leave, President Hoover feared they would impact the upcoming election and wanted them gone. Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, his aide Dwight Eisenhower, and the newspapers claimed the vets were communists attempting to overthrow the government. The police and army set fire, threw teargas, and tanks leveled the camps, and for the final blow, the cavalry torched the remains. Be all you can be in the army! Thank you for your service!
Russia attacks Ukraine, and Americans believe we should pretend the dark side of US history doesn't exist. It's as if Russia's bloody hands absolve the US of any wrongdoing, but some of us don't forget. The way we view Russia's invasion of Ukraine is how the "other" world views our assault on Iraq and numerous nations, yet we're too arrogant to care what anyone else thinks. We have a lot of enemies, and we're about to witness an East versus West divide— again, and it's not because they're jealous of our freedom, but we'll faithfully support the US of A because we were born there.
Silencing the citizens of democratic nations isn't any different than Putin's oppressive regime, but flash your sparkling white straight teeth and feign patriotism because Russia is watching — like that's not a ploy to get Americans to conform. While we worry about Russian propaganda, US propaganda runs wild, and it's unfathomable the US media manufactured a narrative to discredit the truth. Oligarchs own our politicians, the police arrest protesters, and the NSA spies on us, but the Kremlin is entirely different — so are our wars. Well, some of us call bullshit because we're done hiding our scars and trying to fit in with the delusional Americans.
My Jim Crow-affected Sicilian grandma warned me about white people sweeping their dirt under the rug, and boy, oh boy, was she on point. Why did she immigrate if the country is so horrible — because fascist Italy was worse, and she didn't know American freedom excluded dark-skinned people. She must have missed the signage as she boarded the boat, but my grandpa fought for the US during WWII. Hopefully, that excuses her attitude toward US inequality and validates her patriotism, but I'm sure there's someone out there saying, "why didn't she just leave if she didn't like it?"
The least I can do is use the liberty Americans fought long and hard and continue fighting for, and my nationality should be enough to warrant the right to speak up, but if I must justify myself, so be it. My sister's fellow military compatriots gang-raped her and threatened to harm her if she reported the incident, but she decided to speak up. I guess it runs in the family. Naturally, she no longer felt the camaraderie and American love, but the commanders wouldn't allow her to end service to the country (you). Some of us can't leave if we don't like it.
A year later, she and numerous soldiers were diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma multiforme (non-hereditary brain cancer). The military would not waste their massively inflated, endless budget on protective gear for their beloved servicepeople while they worked with chemicals. At least they finally dismissed her, but that was to avoid paying the death gratuity. Hopefully, holding my sister's hand as she died adequately covers my American debt and the liberty to speak of the democratic nation because citizenship doesn't seem to award freedom. Still, Americans justify her death by stating she agreed to give her life to the country, but I wonder, what did these Americans give for their right to tell me to shut up and sit down?
The US had thirty years of unipolarity, and what did it do with the power and influence? Let's see, daddy Bush bombed the hell out of Iraq, Clinton expanded NATO and killed and displaced more civilians than the Bosnian genocide, Bush, NATO, Obama, and Trump demolished oil-producing nations, Biden continues supporting conflicts between foreign countries, and who knows how many covert operations. So, look around; the US exclusively controlled the last three decades, and is the outcome as great as we hoped it would be?
Americans aren't even benefitting from the blood on our government's hands. Globally, civil unrest rages, living standards decline, life expectancy decreases, public funds support failed businesses, governments don't invest in citizens, poverty increases, and we trash the planet because we still snort fossil fuels like feigns. Our government could have done extraordinary things yet chose wars, neoliberalism, greed, power, and narcissism, and no one is allowed to be angry about it.
Russia's invasion broke the unipolarity spell, and patriotic conditioning taught us to believe our country is the nicer imperialist, but it's not. We are an evil empire, and we aren't any better than any other empire, but we are not our government — and Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Ukrainians, Venezuelans, etc., aren't their governments. However, we pay the price of our nation's wars, and none of us win anything but more debt and grief.
Well, I'm refusing to defend my government's role in creating this disgusting existence because, theoretically, I have a say, and if you don't like it, that's your right. So, support the regime, but I don't have to, and when you acknowledge it burns you as severely as it burns millions, it'll be the people like me who fight with you — not against you.