Many people care about protecting the natural environment. Many people care about Native American rights. Most people who care don’t do much more than care. When a group of USA Armed Forces veterans took a stand in North Dakota, powerful people apparently started to care about the direction a crude oil pipe line was going to take. Apparently powerful people care a good deal about veterans.
Mainstream America wondered why somebody didn’t just do something about Native Americans and other peaceful DAPL protesters getting pepper sprayed, tear gassed, sonic blasted, attack-dog bitten, shot with rubber bullets, clubbed and jailed. I think the somebodies who could do something about this didn’t want mainstream America to see a group of veterans treated like previous peaceful protesters.
Armed Forces veterans are trained to deal with being attacked by anything. They are also trained not to question orders. Powerful people like it when orders are not to be questioned. A problem for powerful people is that new information technology keeps revealing more about what USA Armed forces enlistees are ordered to fight for.
Veterans who traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation thought there was something there that needed protecting. They responded to a higher order than the US Government.
Powerful people benefited from the fact that when soldiers fight, they fight primarily to protect their fellow soldiers from dying. They don’t always have time to think much about what else they are fighting for.
Sometimes soldiers are ordered to do horrible things. Again, they are trained not to question why horrible things are in need of doing. Some veterans have difficulty when they are thanked for their service because the veteran knows that the person doing the thanking might be disgusted by aspects of the service provided, if they were aware of it.
It would be interesting if US military was deployed to protect drinking water.
There is plenty of water sources under attack to protect. What the US Military mainly protects is the “Petrodollar” overseas. Domestically the “Petrodollar” is protected by regional law enforcement agencies and private paramilitary contractors. Drinking water goes primarily unprotected,
If you lost some money during the great recession of 2008 and were relieved to get some of it back, you can thank the US military for protecting the “Petrodollar.”
Few people were paying attention when regulations that prohibited the export of oil from the USA were lifted. Gone are the days of, “oil companies got to do what they do because we in the USA need to be able to fill our gas tanks.” Once you get educated about the “Petrodollar,” you will better appreciate why crude oil really needs to keep flowing. No matter what crude things are done in order to do so, and no matter how much we in the USA don’t need the oil.
In the future, US military might could be deployed to combat those who control illicit drug traffic, sex slave traffic, and work slave traffic. They could be called upon to protect earth’s air and soil, along with the water. Not enough people really care about those things yet, but that could change.
Google “Petrodollar” if you are curious about the reasons people fight for it. If what you find is upsetting, it is probably just because what you are reading is the work of conspiracy theorists, fake news creators, or the Russians. However, if you see a Veteran who went to Standing Rock, think about thanking them for their service anyway.
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