Memorial Day Message: What ARE We Fighting For? Gary Johnson Wants to Know

And I watch the parades pass before me

And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march

Reviving old dreams of past glory

And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore

They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war

And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"

And I ask myself the same question

- "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by Eric Bogle

Gary Johnson is baffled by the
question "What ARE we fighting for?"
That's because it's a trick question.
There is no answer. 

Last year at Memorial Day, I made one of my first posts on this site. It was entitled "On Memorial Day: What ARE we Fighting For?". I looked at each of the wars America has fought and concluded that with the exception of the Revolutionary War, all of the wars in our nation's history were immoral.

So, why are we fighting them? Quite honestly, I still haven't thought of a satisfactory answer to that question. There is a very simple reason for that - there is absolutely NO justification for the wars we are currently fighting. We need a President who knows that. The only President who will end ALL wars is Gary Johnson.

Johnson is the former two-term Governor of New Mexico and is running on the Libertarian Party line. He expects to be on the ballot in all 50 states this November. On his website, he states

With Osama bin Laden now killed and after 10 years of fighting, U.S. forces should leave Afghanistan's challenges to the Afghan people.

A US military base in Berlin.
There was no reason for this
30 years ago, and there
certainly isn't now.

Governor Johnson knows we have no business being in Afghanistan. He also knows that "decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union ... it is time to reevaluate our deployments [in Europe]." We haven't been fighting in Europe for decades. We never should have had bases there to begin with. The Cold War only happened because both sides felt it needed to happen. They acted as if "neither could live while the other survives" and thus it was true. Unfortunately, it cost both sides massive amounts of money and led to several unnecessary wars. (On a side note, if this sounds familiar to Harry Potter fans, I don't think that's coincidental)

America needs to end their wars and Gary Johnson knows that. Not just the foreign wars, but the "War on Drugs", the "War on Internet Piracy" and every other declared and undeclared metaphorical "War" that we are fighting now. Not only would it make America a better place, but it would also cut a significant chunk of America's very excessive spending.

In the words of Gary Johnson,

“US military spending is more than that of every other country combined. There's a culture of waste, fraud, and abuse in defense budgeting we simply can no longer tolerate. Defense spending must be subject to the same scrutiny as other areas of the budget."

So, what ARE we fighting for?

 

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard

As you march by the billabong

Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?

(For a full explanation of these lyrics, see last year's post here)