Washington, D.C. – Amidst recent US airstrikes against Iran, Americans are – once again – bracing for war. If the aggression proceeds, soldiers and civilians alike may be called upon to contribute their efforts to this all-too-predictable crusade. This includes Americans with disabilities – who are largely written out of material wartime service, but whose symbolic duty as human metaphors for the cost of war is immeasurable.
Pentagon officials say “the theme of the soldier’s sacrifice is central to their strategies for military recruitment and morale maintenance”. If it weren’t for disabled minds and bodies coming home, there would be much less trauma for radio talk hosts to beat people over the head with because – I don’t know – it honors the troops or something? The common dirtbag simply cannot understand what it is like to be in war! But, that guy over there with third degree burns – regardless of how he got them – is a true patriot!
Moreover, the disabled American – the default expendable to the great military-economic juggernaut of Washington, perennially shafted in its annual budgeting of wealth – casts a long shadow over the future of soldiers. They too can expect to hear: “there is no money left for their disability care” – because too much of it got spent making them disabled in the first place.
So, when you see an American amputee or an American in the throes of a PTSD episode, don’t forget to thank them. Tell them, “on behalf of my whole country – a body of hundreds of millions that I alone speak for – you represent everything we do this for. You are the ultimate human sacrifice -and for that, disabled American, I salute you.”