Global War OF Terror Memorial in WashedUp, DeCeit

How War Memorials Perpetuate Crimes Against Humanity

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Casey Austin Sheehan: Christmas 1980

A GW(OF)T Memorial for All

For over two decades, members of the armed forces, civilians, and their families have courageously answered the call of duty in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT.) The GWOT Memorial will be a lasting tribute for all who have served and sacrificed in this ongoing conflict. The Foundation strives for the Memorial to be an inclusive and reverent place of honor and healing where Americans may come to be empowered and unite behind a shared love for country and gratitude for those protecting our sacred freedoms. FROM THE GWOFTERROR MEMORIAL WEBSITE.

I had never been to the National Capital until after my son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. My daughters, sister, and a couple of friends went to DeCeit exactly six months after Casey was killed to participate in our first antiwar protest there.

We protested, but we also did the tourist trappy things: We sobbed through the changing of the guard at Arlington (Casey is not buried there); ate and had beers at the Hard Rock Cafe; and, with an Iraq War veteran, we visited all of the war memorials.

The Vietnam War Memorial, to me, is a solemn reminder of the horrors of war.

The wall lists the names of over 58,000 men and women killed or missing in action. Each wall is 246 feet 9 inches long; the total length of the wall is 493 feet 6 inches. The wall is an angle that measures 125 degrees 12 minutes. The wall is 10 feet 3 inches high at the center where the sides of the angle meet.

It occurred to us that if the U.S. service members who have died from suicide, alcohol/drug abuse, agent orange contamination, etc, were added, the wall would need to be more than twice as long as it already is. If we added the Vietnamese dead (about 3 million), I cannot do the math about how long that wall would have to be. Three million divided by 58k times 493 feet?

Personally, I did not know anyone close to me who was killed in Vietnam (I do know people who have suffered from the aftermath, though), but walking through the Vietnam Memorial was very sobering. While reading the names, ones face is reflected back from the black marble. We are forced to confront our own culpability in the US’s long history of mass murder, genocide, and complete destruction.

After walking through the appropriate Vietnam War Memorial (appropriate in its design and evoked feelings—not appropriate because the war never should have happened), we walked over to the GLORIOUS WWII Memorial: We almost felt like bursting out in a song and dance routing, along the lines of a George M. Cohan “You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag:” Yankee Doodle Dandy! In a conflict where tens of millions of people around the world died (death camps, blockades, nuclear bombs), I believe one should not want to morph into a chorus line when entering.

Now, the establishment is proposing a National GW(OF)TERROR monument in the same geographic area that salutes many war mongers and devastating wars. I have some feelings about this.

I am in favor of healing, and all that jazz, I have spent almost two-decades trying to heal from the trauma of my sons life being stolen from him in a conflict that was debased from the beginning. The events of 9/11/2001 have NEVER been adequately accounted for and those who perpetrated that crime are the same ones that perpetrated the crimes against humanity of the Global War OF Terror. Remember when the invasion of Iraq was very appropriately called: Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.) and they changed it to O.I.Freedom? Cannot have an acronym that truthfully announces the actual reason, now, could we?

As most of us should do, I have also felt guilt about all of the innocent civilians killed in the US’s War OF Terror, especially in the Middle East and Africa in these past two decades. However, like in all past conflicts, the so-called enemy was never accurately counted, mourned, or even considered—they are called “collateral damage,” for Jesus Tap Dancing Christ’s sake. Their losses are considered acceptable for most, because of the final line in the mission statement of the GWOFT memorial:

a shared love for country and gratitude for those protecting our sacred freedoms.

If anyone believes the above bullshit, then you should stop reading.

Casey joined the military to be able to afford university. Who can love a country where our children have to choose between becoming paid assassins for Standard Oil (Gen. Smedley D. Butler: War is a Racket ca. 1935 I wrote the afterword for this edition), or go into life-long, high-interest, exorbitant debt for a degree? I’m not saying Casey hated the US, but by the time of his deployment in March 2004, we were all aware of the b.s. nature of the GW(OF)T and he told everyone on his last visit home before his deployment: “I won’t be able to kill anyone.”

It’s my opinion, that the GW(OF)T has not protected any of our so-called sacred freedoms. It in fact expanded “terror” or what any reasonable person would call: People just defending their families/communities.

One of the first acts of the monsters in Congress after 9/11 was to pass the USAPATRIOT ACT "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The USA PATRIOT ACT unconstitutionally amended the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that allowed the government to conduct searches without notifying the subjects, at least until long after the search has been executed, among more abrogations of our “sacred” freedoms. Since then, especially during the shamdemic, alternative voices are canceled, impoverished, or suppressed. Individuals and organizations have been persecuted under these abrogations of our “sacred freedoms.” In fact, I, a “Gold Star Mother,” have been arrested about two-dozen times trying to exercise those “sacred” freedoms my son “sacrificed” to protect. Julian Assange, a journalist, has been rotting in prison in the U.K. for exposing war crimes against civilians in Iraq. These are just a few examples where books can and have been written about these crimes against humanity. No one sacrifices for mostly non-existent “sacred” freedoms: they ARE SACRIFICED on the altar of unbridled green and unrepentant slaughter.

I greatly oppose memorializing one of the most unnecessary and tragic wars the US waged in a long line of tragic wars. I don’t want a young, emotionally vulnerable, and intellectually undeveloped person to look at these memorials and think it would be awesome to join a captured and co-opted military to “sacrifice” for “sacred” freedoms that are eroding more every day.

Briefly, the county we live in built a GW(OF)T monument and the day it was unveiled, I wasn’t even invited to attend the ceremony. Casey’s dad and siblings were invited, but I wasn’t. The excuse was that they didn’t have my address, but they were able to contact the rest of my family—who had my address? At the time, and today, I have a fucking website with all of my contact information. I didn’t even know about it until the rest of my family were getting ready to leave.

The bottomline is that the war hogs (my apology to hogs) don’t want the true cost of war memorialized, or commemorated. Mothers and others who oppose this existential crisis of US Imperialism need are not welcome.

I did read some good news yesterday. The US military is having trouble recruiting because of fat-thin young people. Young people who do not look obese, but who are very unfit. It’s not good news that our young people are couch-potato out-of-shape, but that the military is running out of cannon fodder, or bullet sponges to murder/train to murder.

It’s worth to note how many “antiwar” forces who opposed US attacks on Iraq/Afghanistan have shown outright or tacit support of democrat wars like Libya and Ukraine: not principled oppo, but partisan hackery.

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