Kenzan's Retirement Speech

I can still remember my first tour of duty in Iraq. I remember hot summer nights and even hotter summer days. I remember sweating until my fingers pruned. I remember when, for twenty bucks, our platoon officer decided to try and capture a camel spider with his bare hands. I can still hear his screams and my laughter. I remember mystery meatball and cardboard spaghetti rations. I remember shower less days and weeks.

But then, I remember puddles of scarlet, rotting corpses, and maggots. I remember shooting and killing children a quarter of my age. I remember trying to wash away the smell of death from my clothes, my hair, and my skin. I remember falling asleep to the sound of children crying.

I remember the conflicts that followed: the military occupation of Mexico, the North Korean incursion, the Panama Canal takeover, the war for Chinese freedom. I remember President Schwarzenegger saying, “We must fight for the freedom of the oppressed and exploited.” I remember believing those words.

I can see now, with the clarity of sight that comes only with the passage of time, that we weren’t fighting for the rights of others; we were only fighting for our own rights. We fought whenever our interests – political or economic – were at stake. The Iraqi conflict endangered our supply of oil; the chaos in Mexico threatened to spill over the border; the North Korean dictator was becoming too ambitious in his nuclear weapons program, the Panama Canal needed to be protected from insurgents, the Chinese government threatened to eradicate cheap labor in China for American companies. Where our interests were not at stake, we turned a blind eye. We ignored the genocides of Darfur, Congo, and India because American interests weren’t at stake.

When the oil in Iraq dried up, we abandoned the free people of Iraq. Within months a Muslim autocracy replaced the established democracy. When Nicaragua made a larger canal, the Panama Canal became a moot point, and we betrayed the Panamanians and left them out to dry. The ensuing and ongoing civil war has claimed upwards of a million lives.

I saw that the principles of democracy were only a cover for the vested interests of American power and money. I saw that our American democracy was not run by its citizens, but by big business.

With my retirement from the American military as of January 11, 2057, I am freed from my obligations to the American nation. I ask you today, my family and friends, to forgive me for what I am about to do. I have seen the injustices of America, and aim to bring about change.

As for what I am about to do, I will only say that people will mar my name in what mud they can find. They will call me a terrorist and a threat to America and curse my name in vain. In the coming months and years, I ask you only to remember this: Madison and Washington, our greatest patriots, were called terrorists by the British. Perhaps one day, I too, will be called a patriot.