4th of July.....anonymous veteran

I experienced a surfeit of patriotism this 4th of July.

I watched people in MAGA hats scream at anti-Trump protesters, branding them as un-American, as if Trump were synonymous with America.

I watched an enraged counter-protester physically assault a group of people burning an American flag in front of the White House.

I heard or read, more times than I can count, phrases like, "America, love it or leave it"; "If you disrespect the flag, you disrespect Veterans"; and, "Don't burn the flag if you weren't man enough to volunteer to die for it."

Bullshit. We can treat the flag any way we like.

First, protest, including flag burning, is protected free speech. So are counter-protests - but, crucially, assaulting other people because you disagree with them is not. Yet, the flag-burners were arrested and the MAGA man strutted away. Why is flag burning the only sign of disrespect that attracts ire? Why isn't wearing it as underwear or a bikini proscribed?

Howard Zinn, the radical historian, once remarked, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." What kind of dissent does stained underwear represent?

Second, the flag belongs to everyone in the U.S., not just people on active duty or Veterans. It's 𝘰𝘶𝘳 flag, not 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 flag.

Third, and even more important, the flag doesn’t earn respect, the behavior of the nation does. If the actions of the nation are shameful, then the flag doesn’t deserve respect.

There are people within the U.S. for whom the flag is problematic – the Aboriginal peoples who experienced genocide under its colors; African Americans who experienced slavery, Jim Crow, and ongoing economic and physical abuse while Old Glory waved at the courthouse; and the residents of the American colonies of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And that is to say nothing of those countries we've invaded (too numerous to list!), occupied against the will of its citizens (Afghanistan, Iraq, Okinawa), or destroyed (Libya, Syria, Yemen).

Respect is not a one-time event; it must be continually earned. Going to war for oil and empire, destroying societies and murdering people for profit, are not worthy of respect.

I spent nearly 12 years on active duty, including the first Gulf War. I didn’t deploy to the war zone, although I volunteered to go (that's what you did in the military culture of the time). I did support U.S. troops transitioning to and from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and I went (as a civilian in the Red Cross) to Saudi after the war to support the military personnel who remained in country. I saw no joy in the faces of those temporarily stopping at RAF Alconbury on their way to/from war. No one was waving flags or speaking of respect. Those on garrison duty after the war were simply waiting out their time so they could go home and forget about it; there was no talk of glory.

My time in the military did five things for me. (1) It forced me to develop self-discipline; (2) It provided me the opportunity to live and travel outside of the U.S., an experience that made me realize the absurdity of American exceptionalism; (3) It made me dislike hierarchy and bureaucracy; (4) It made me anti-nuclear (I worked on nuclear missiles for much of my time in the service); and (5) It rekindled and strengthened inchoate anti-war feelings from my high school and college days.

I participated in countless exercises, in the field and in command posts, watching towns and cities and bases “destroyed” by nuclear and conventional weapons so that we could protect the Fulda Gap for democracy. Unnamed and unmourned people, for whom democracy and communism became meaningless in a fiery instant, "died." At RAF Alconbury, we waited for the morning of the third day of an exercise, because that's usually when our base was destroyed and we could get back to our ordinary lives.

People need to get over their flag fetish. The flag is not the nation, nor is it an adequate stand-in for the behavior of the nation, which cannot be summarized in a piece of cloth. What elicits pride and respect is today’s behavior. Yes, we can honor Veterans, and we should, but more importantly we need to change the behavior of the nation so that we don’t create new Veterans - especially combat Veterans.

Our behavior among the nations of the world - and toward people within our own borders - earns respect, not what happens on the battlefield, no matter how valiant the soldiers. Drone strikes that murder men, women, and children attending a wedding party do not earn respect. Concentration camps on our southern border do not earn respect. Gerrymandering elections to preserve white supremacy does not earn respect.

Having said all of this, I think burning the flag (or other signs of “disrespect”) are counterproductive. Attacking something that people consider “sacred” (as if a thing can ever be sacred) needlessly alienates people who are suffering under the national delusion of American exceptionalism. And 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 are the people who need to hear the message that our behavior as a nation is shameful and must change.