No country is threatening our lives, but the US and its belligerence endangers the world. China, Russia, or Iran's navy isn't anywhere near our borders, yet US battleships are everywhere, especially in the South CHINA sea.

A government that willingly subjects its population to the horrors of wars is not a democratic establishment that represents our interests. These oligarch-defending assholes won't even invest in our health yet expect us to fight its wars. No. Way.

The only nationalistic thing I'm willing to do is refuse to allow young generations, who are our future, to die and kill in senseless wars.

There are 800 global military bases to protect and defend us from the enemy of the day, while US mercenary companies send impoverished foreign nationals to our government's proxy wars to support capitalist interests.

The US is relentlessly engaged in violent conflicts, half of which the media doesn't report because US foreign policy is fascist and wars are its economic backbone. We are a militarized nation and history's most deadly regime that doesn't defend democracy, human rights, liberation, or human development. These are the values that we defend, and increasing the size of our military reinforces them.

The question is, what kind of nation do we want to be?

PS - I'm ranting at the general public.

Also, a young woman joined the Navy because her wisdom teeth caused her immense pain, and she couldn't afford the procedure. She was deployed to blockade and famine Yemen but didn't realize it until she returned home. She resigned and established a mental health center to support vets who believed they were fulfilling US-stated values yet unknowingly engaged in horrific catastrophes. I can't imagine the pain that would cause and don't want to.