By Joshua Jongema
On Memorial Day I remembered all of the victims of war, civilians and soldiers. I mourned the loss of human life, dignity, liberty, justice, and truth caused by war. As a Canadian-born American who joined the Washington Army National Guard at 25 years old, I knew nothing about history or geopolitics. Like many young men I wanted to protect people, to compete at a real-life game of skill, and to be an elite member of society.
Proud at First
I was proud when I won the Soldier of the Cycle award in Basic Combat Training, and the Honor Grad award in Advanced Individual Training. I was proud when I volunteered to deploy overseas with the Oklahoma guard, but after serving just one tour through Kuwait and Iraq in 2011, I was no longer proud of my service. I didn’t secure a single American freedom or liberate a single Iraqi citizen. The war itself was unconstitutional and illegal.
Although the Iraq War was supposed to end on December 15, 2011, I took part in operations that moved vehicles and equipment into the country after that date. We were told we’d deliver the trucks to the Iraqi government, but we drove them past Baghdad to Mosul. We delivered them to people who didn’t wear regular military uniforms. We weren’t allowed into their compound- a gated area within the greater base. The trucks I equipped were very similar to ones later seen in images attributed to the rise of ISIS, a group whose purported existence was used to justify 17 nations invading Syria with airplanes, and later boots on the ground. It was later revealed boots on the ground were already present, and just like that one war morphed into another, again without a declaration of war by Congress.
Endless War
Meanwhile the Iraq War still hasn’t ended. As we soldiers went out in 2011, the paramilitary contractors went in. Then the American public stopped paying attention. After a century of conflict over control of the fallen Ottoman Empire’s oil resources, the western companies that owned Iraqi oil under the 1928 Red Line Agreement are many of the same ones developing oil fields there now, while operating under a different name. War is economic. War is illegal. Such war should be defunded, and ended.
*Article was featured in the August 2023 edition of the Michigan Libertarian.
