"The military is fighting for our freedoms." Truth or Propaganda?

[FinalEvangelion]

This is a sensitive topic, and I'm going to get heat for it, I know.  This isn't meant to be an insult to people in the military.  I support you guys as long as you aren't douchebags about it (I do meet alot of douchebags from the military, though).  Thanks for your service and yada yada.  This is more about how the military is used by the politicians.

 

So we always hear, "thank the military for your freedoms," "thank a soldier for being able to say what we want."

 

I know the miltary and its actions are the aspects of government I'm not suppose to question according to many right wing conservatives.  Many will say that I'm unpatriotic for bringing this topic up.  But, I think that a big part of patriotism is to question the government and my taxes are going to pay for the military, which is a major part of the government.

 

Ultimately, the military answers to the politicians.  It's a controversial on whether the politicians are representing the people or the corporations.  A big theme in this Occupy movement has to do with corporate influence on the government.  A few retired elites from the military have even sounded like hippies when they admit to being glorified thugs for our corporate structure rather than defenders of our freedom.  Do we go in for corporate interests time to time?

Let's go through some military operations since World War II.

World War II - Okay, I will admit here we were ultimately protecting our freedoms and security.  If nothing was done, the Western half could have easily fallen to Japan and the Eastern half could have fallen to Nazi Germany - eventually.  And if that were to happen - well - many would end up in concentration camps from both sides alot worse than what we did to the Japanese Americans (we weren't completely good here as well - we did revoke their freedoms based on race).  So yeah, we defended our freedoms and security.

 

Vietnam - We defended one dictatorship from another dictatorship.  The difference being, one was a communist dictatorship.  It doesn't look like we were fighting for anyone's freedoms.  We were really defending an ideology and preventing the spread of one ideology we disagree with.  Don't get me wrong, I am completely against communism.

 

More recently  ...

 

Iraq - This one seemed to be more about vendettas among the politicians than any other reasons.  They made a story about how there are WMDs or connections to the Al Queda and people believed Bush and co.    Maybe there was oil interest, but I don't want to get heavily into that debate.  We did liberate their people to and extent.  But, how did this war defend our freedoms.

 

Afghanistan / Pakistan (Osama and Al Queda) - I do agree with this one as it helped defend our security from known terrorists that attacked us.  We did need to bring justice to the terrorists.  However, the whole Muslim world doesn't need to be held accountable for the actions of a few.

 

Libya - By helping out, we did defend their freedoms, but we really didn't defend our freedoms.  I don't know where I stand on this one.

 

People I consider to actually fight for our freedoms are ones like Martin Luther King.  I consider it a self evident freedom to use whatever water fountain is open to the public no matter my race.

 

So what do you think.  Is it just propaganda to get people to support whatever military action we do for what ever reason the politicians have?  I'm not saying Democrats and Republicans are any different.  Many Democrats fight what I consider frivalous wars as they represent the same lobbyists.  Should we be more truthful and say we are definding other people's freedoms from other nations?