- Fought to protect corporate America’s $50,000,000.00 investment in Cuba during the Spanish-American War;
- Died on foreign shores during World War I in what President Woodrow Wilson, who involved the U.S. in that war, later said “…in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war;”
- Sacrificed so much in World War II while U.S. companies, with U.S. government approval, continually supplied the Axis powers with goods that U.S. citizens had to ration, including materials used to help kill Allied soldiers;
- Suffered and died in Korea, to safeguard and ensure the expansion of U.S. trade throughout the region;
- Endured the hell of the Vietnam War to satisfy the egos of three presidents, and help ensure their elections and re-elections;
- Fought in the heat of the Iraqi and Kuwaiti deserts to protect Western oil sources;
- Sacrificed lives and health in Afghanistan to enable an oil pipeline to be built through that country, a pipeline that had been forbidden by the Taliban;
- Fought again in Iraq, again to protect oil sources, and provide U.S. corporations with extremely lucrative contracts to rebuild that nation after the U.S. destroyed it.
Let us also take a moment to thank all soldiers who deserted the U.S. military; those who fought and then came home to oppose the wars they fought in; the men who evaded the draft, and all other men and women the world over who oppose U.S. imperialism, and give more consideration to human life than corporate profits. These are the true heroes, the men and women to be honored today and always.