Retired United States Army Major Danny Sjursen

One of the greatest abuses inflicted by our political class upon society involves the manufactured destruction of the lives of too many of our bravest citizens, all too often turning many of them from eager young patriots into disillusioned and discarded human wrecks, a “what have you done for me lately” syndrome.

And for what?

Certainly not the desperate existential goals with which they’re indoctrinated but rather, to go kill other nation’s children and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters for the profit of others whose children play comfortably at learning how to loot their fellow men and women.

As usual, now retired United States Army Major Danny Sjursen provides clarity and a basis for much needed introspection in his poignant and enlightening recent article, “Uncle Sam Sent Me to Rehab for PTSD”.

Colombia is not immune to this syndrome and as with so many other social issues, we’ve also been brainwashed into a self-destructive cycle of dysfunctional democracy orchestrated through faux journalism cajoling us into voting for that which does us the most harm.

Several years ago, after a university political science forum I helped organized dealing with the then evolving Colombian peace process, I expressed the fact that the Colombian military would have to be downsized should the process succeed and that thought had to be given to how the discharged veterans would be integrated back into society, referring to them as also victims of the half century old conflict. I recommended a plan similar to that employed in the United States following World War II, with educational benefits and low income loans to buy homes and start businesses.

The reaction was immediate and hysterical, initiated through a viral social media post from an anonymous noncommissioned officer in the Colombian armed forces who inaccurately insisted that the event had been orchestrated in coordination with FARC negotiators in Havana in order to disparage noble Colombian heroes.  Representatives of the Colombian president, apparently at the urging of the United States embassy, contacted my university Rector demanding an explanation for my disparagingly inflammatory and inaccurate remarks, as well as those of guest historians who had described the history of the Colombian conflict. Fortunately, participants present, including a Colombian Senator from the right wing Centro Democrático party (that now governs Colombia) as well as academics from all over the country came to my defense, although how effective such support proved on a long term basis is debatable.

How strange that an attempt to promote a plan to protect discharged Colombian veterans would be seen by their own peers as an effort to discredit them. But that’s the world we live in, where anything that seeks to resolve the state of perpetual war is deemed a threat to those who rule us.  And the victims, seemingly everyone but the politicians involved, the faux journalist who now make up the corporate media and their billionaire masters, … well, … all too often, we keep bleating like the good sheep we are, and driven by fears of greater evils, keep voting to tighten our bipartisan chains.

Something to think about.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2019; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia although he has primarily lived in the United States of America (of which he is a citizen).  Until recently he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales.  He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation and linguistic studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies).  He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at http://www.guillermocalvo.com.