Why
Should Soldiers and Veterans Support A Workers Revolution?
An
Interview with Wolf Larsen
from the book Capitalism Sucks!
Question: Why should soldiers support a workers
revolution?
Answer: Many soldiers – especially American soldiers
– are sick and tired of all these wars. Communists
believe in peace. We are against war.
Q. Are you a communist?
A. I am a communist sympathizer. I'm not an actual communist because I'm not a
member of any political group.
Q. Why should veterans support a workers
revolution?
A. Not all veterans are being well treated by
our government. Veterans who have fought
for our nation and come back injured or disabled should receive help from the
government. But instead of receiving
help from the government there are many veterans who are receiving endless
bureaucratic obstacles, instead of the help that they need. Communists believe that veterans should
receive the help and benefits that they deserve! Veterans should receive quality free medical
care for the rest of their lives.
Veteran hospitals have to be improved!
Veterans should also receive any benefits they need, especially if they
are not able to work. Whatever help the
veterans may need to cope with the stress from war memories and experiences
than the government should help them with that too. Communists believe in fighting for the rights
of veterans!
Q. Many American soldiers have been sent back
into combat over and over again. How do
you feel about that?
A. I feel that our government is abusing the
soldiers by sending them into harm's way over and over again! If you fought in a war and survived you
shouldn't be set back again to possibly die or get seriously injured. Our government is not treating the soldiers
with the respect that they deserve.
Q. But isn't that the duty of the soldier – to
go to war?
A.
That depends on the circumstances. We are currently in two wars at the same time
– Iraq and Afghanistan. Both of these
countries are halfway across the world.
These wars have nothing to do with the defense of our country! These wars are more about the rich people and
the politicians wanting to dominate the world.
Our government tells the soldiers a bunch of lies. The soldiers who are sick and tired of
fighting should be allowed to leave the armed forces right away if they so
choose. Soldiers leaving the armed
forces should receive all the benefits that they were promised by the
government plus free medical care for life and whatever job-training they may
need to adjust to civilian life. Plus
they should receive a living stipend until they're able to get settled and
start working.
Q. But don't soldiers already receive benefits
from the government? Don't soldiers
receive free college education and job training?
A. I think a free college education and free
job-training should be a right for all young people all over the world –
including in our country. I don't think
that young people should have to risk their lives abroad in order to receive
free college education and free job-training.
The best way to support our young people is to make sure that they have
the tools they need – like a college education or job training – so that they
can lead productive and prosperous lives.
Q. After the Vietnam War some people spit in the
face of returning soldiers and called them baby killers. How do you feel about that?
A. If some people engaged in that kind of
ignorant behavior than that's disgusting.
Returning soldiers should be treated with respect. I think actually it's the government that treats returning soldiers with disrespect! Many soldiers need help with medical problems
that they have incurred during the war, but often instead of receiving help for
their medical problems they receive a bunch of bureaucratic obstacles. Some of these returning soldiers have health
problems so serious that they are unable to work. Instead of helping them our government only
gives many of them endless bureaucratic obstacles, and the soldiers wind up
homeless as a result. Yes, there are
homeless veterans living on our streets!
They don't have a place to live.
Obviously, our government is not helping some returning soldiers
enough. The politicians and the
four-star generals talk a bunch of pretty words about soldiers and veterans but
when it comes to helping the soldiers and veterans that need help the
government obviously falls short. Not a
single veteran should be homeless!
Q. You say that soldiers and veterans should
support a workers revolution. What
connection is there between workers and soldiers?
A. Many workers are dissatisfied with the
economic and political system because they don't have enough money to pay their
bills, medical care is too expensive, the public schools for their children are
often lousy, the rent is too high – the list of workers complaints just goes on
and on. Many soldiers are not happy with
our political and economic situation either.
Many soldiers are sick and tired of being sent back into war again and
again – they are being sent back to wars that have nothing to do with
protecting America – wars that are more about helping the interests of the rich
and privileged few. Many veterans
returning injured from the war have trouble just getting the kind of benefits
and medical care that they need and deserve.
Both soldiers and workers deserve more respect. Both soldiers and workers have their complaints
against the system. Both soldiers and
workers would benefit from a society where there are less wars and more jobs
with good wages and good benefits. And
remember, soldiers are often from working-class families. The soldiers have more in common with the
workers, and have less in common with the war-mongering politicians and
war-profiteering rich people.
Q. I don't understand how soldiers would benefit
from a society of peace. Isn't that what
soldiers do – fight wars?
A. The soldiers are being made to fight wars
that benefit privileged economic interests.
The politicians are sending the soldiers into wars because the
politicians have this crazy idea of dominating the world. Apparently these politicians in Washington
think that they're in ancient Rome and that America is some Roman Empire. If these politicians want to dominate the
world let the politicians and their children fight the wars! I think many young people join the armed
forces for practical reasons – like getting financial help with a college
education or simply escaping from a place where there are few
opportunities. What we need to do is
provide young people with real opportunities.
Everyone – including young adults – should have the right to a job. Minimum wage should be doubled so that people
can live a decent life. College
education should be free. Under these
circumstances with free college education, and everyone having the right to a
job, with a minimum wage you can live on and still have some left over
afterwards to have fun, then under these circumstances many young people would
have more options in life.
Q. Are you a pacifist?
A. Absolutely not. Sometimes war is necessary, particularly in
self-defense. I think the Red Army of
the Soviet Union did a great job of kicking the ass of Nazi Germany!
Q. But you're against most wars?
A. Yes I am.
Most wars are fought for the benefit of a privileged few. There are always politicians and dictators
who have no problem sending young people to die just so that those politicians
and dictators can advance their own power hungry interests. Too many young people's lives have been lost
pointlessly in endless wars that only benefit a privileged few. As we all know war causes hardship and
suffering and death and destruction. Why
should the sons and daughters of working people kill each other just because
they're from different nations? The
soldiers killing each other on the battlefield often have more in common with
each other than they do with the politicians, dictators, and generals who sent
them into harm's way. Soldiers fighting
each other should make peace with each other.
The real enemy of the rank-and-file American soldier is in Washington,
DC and on Park Avenue in New York. Park
Avenue in New York is where some of the richest people in our country
live. The rich are the people that
benefit from all these wars.
Q. Soldiers who are fighting each other making
peace with each other? Don't you think that sounds naïve?
A. No, not entirely. During World War I soldiers on the Western
Front stopped fighting each other and made peace with each other. It all began Christmas Eve and continued on
for a while. The soldiers refused to
fight. Instead, the soldiers of the
rival armies played soccer with each other in the no man's land between the
trenches. Soldiers of the rival armies
drank together. The vast majority of the
lower-ranking rank officers did not have a problem with this. But when the generals stationed further away
from the front heard that the two sides had spontaneously laid down their arms
then the generals became furious and ordered the lower-ranking officers to make
the soldiers shoot at each other again.
Most of the soldiers on both sides were very reluctant to start
hostilities again. I encourage soldiers
and veterans and everybody else to learn more about this wonderful spontaneous
peace between the rank-and-file soldiers on both sides of the Western Front
during World War I.
Q. Weren't soldiers an important part of the
workers revolution in Russia in 1917?
A. Yes they were. The Russian soldiers were sick and tired of
the First World War. Originally, Russian
soldiers had been very supportive of the war.
But as the war dragged on the soldiers lost enthusiasm for the war and
turned against it. The soldiers wanted
peace, or most of them wanted peace anyway.
The Russian workers were unhappy too.
The workers in the factories were tired of working so hard for such low
wages. They wanted better wages. They were having a hard time making ends
meet. In the countryside there were many
peasants living in poverty. In March of
1917 the Czar was kicked out and a reformist government took power. However, despite all the promises of this
reformist government nothing changed.
The war raged on, wages in the factories remained low, and the peasants
continued suffering. So the workers,
soldiers, and the peasants united together and they kicked out the reformist
government and put the communists in power.
The communists ended the war.
Russia – or rather the new Soviet Union – withdrew from the war. The soldiers were able to return home.
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