Many members of the military are not so sure they want to welcome the year of the Rat, not that the Pig now exiting was good for them. In the enlisted ranks, they’ve just about had it with the civilian top-echelon of command and the multiple tours to Iraq. And the Rat could prove to be not only a carrier of pestilence in 2008 but also provide Bush, and his neocon entourage, with a scabby distraction from the looming economic bloodbath; and if you happen to be thinking “Iran,” my answer to you is . . . bingo!

Available current data on political contributions by US military personnel to presidential candidates indicate that Ron Paul, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat, are the leading cash beneficiaries. Interestingly enough, those are two candidates who, if elected, would bring the troops home . . . either immediately (Ron Paul), or within a year (Barack Obama). Or so the promises go!

The collection plate has proven to be somewhat less generous for the hawks (McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Clinton) when it was passed along, and although there are no records of contributions by rank, it’s probably safe to assume that almost all political donations for those hawks came from the commissioned officers’ higher ranks.

What is an officer to do? “It’s your career, stupid!” Little or nothing has changed from those medieval times when some people were born to preach while others were piously entrusted to bear arms; in both cases “chosen people” whose destiny was to serve God and country, the two holy banners by which people have been, throughout the millennia, killing each other, replacing love and compassion with hate and righteousness; all done in hero-worshipping ways . . . and in total denial of obvious criminality.

And that righteousness, forcefully expressed from the pulpit, invariably makes those men of the cloth guardians of the faith, as well as the morals that people must observe; also coming from the White House and Pentagon, assuring us that the brave military are the true defenders of freedom and democracy, sole protectors against terror. That while we are being poisoned with the government’s cocktail -- laced with propaganda and pseudo-patriotism . . . and served daily by the hooker-media -- giving in to the crudest of lies from those who have self-designated to be in charge, uncontested claimants as upholders and sole interpreters of the US Constitution.

For years, many Americans have shown resentment against what they believe to be the US role as “the world’s policeman.” Those assertions have been made as indictments against wasting money overseas, and not as repudiation of systemic belligerence, or a true advocacy for peace -- and the sanctity of human life. Even today, as the American economy graduates from globalization to “bubbleization” . . . and we stand to become the biggest bubble reality show -- where Americans are both actors and audience -- it does perplex one’s mind to discover the great majority of our citizenry still believing that this nation is a big Santa Claus feeding and clothing the world; and our military, a pro-bono police force whose “sacrifices” go unappreciated by the international community.

And, saddest of all, those who know better appear to do nothing to enlighten the rest!

Last Wednesday, Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal, in an article which had the feeling of an editorial, basically subscribed to the fear in our capitalist elite -- always well reflected by that newspaper -- that wounds being inflicted during this political campaign by and among Democrats may be difficult to heal. And that could spell serious trouble for an America which has always been united-in-captivity; a nation kept docile and truth- suppressed, as if the clear divide did not exist. So the elite needs to put the lid on the simmering, at times boiling, pot and hypocritically give the salute: “God bless America.”

So there is a chasm between whites and blacks, Hispanics and non-Hispanics, women and men, young and old; but we don’t like to spread the “horrible” truth of un-American disunity.

Give me a break! Ours is a “United States” not a “United People” . . . and just as some have experienced that “American dream,” many others have had to endure that well-hidden “American nightmare.” Problems need to surface, be confronted, tackled and, hopefully, solved; we are still many years away from becoming a “United People.” Our capitalist elite have always wanted to keep us non-rebellious, under the chimera that we are a united people. That implanted idea is likely to receive, and soon, a major jolt as the economic recession proves to be not just a two-quarter adjustment in the economy, but a true consumption lifetime adjustment that will bare naked social, economic and political flaws in our predatory capitalist system.

Meantime the US military will continue to be kept as the overworked, underpaid police force of the US capitalist elite . . . hoping, perhaps, for reinforcements from the NATO vassals; or, God save us, the reinstitution of the military draft. A not too promising Year of the Rat for the United States, the Middle East, parts of South Asia . . . and, definitely, not the United States military.

© 2008 Ben Tanosborn