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Army to seize new national sacrifice zone for militarism

This land will be used to conduct military exercises with a new generation of automated heavy tracked combat equipment, including live fire and bombing. The area to be sacrificed stretches from Kansas to the Rocky Mountains and is larger than Vermont and many entire nations.

Our Land is Our Life

Essay by Andrea Leininger

So what does the land signify, what does it mean to you? This question has been asked of ranchers nonstop for the past few years, ever since it was made known that the Army wanted to expand their Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. And every time, we answer, “It’s our life.”

Now, some people just can’t understand why we get so worked up over a piece of land. And wouldn’t it just be easier, they ask, to take the money and get a house in town where you don’t have to work yourself to the bone 24/7? Well, actually, no. It would not be easier. We would be miserable. Why? Because we’re not working.

I know that sounds preposterous to some, but to us, it makes all the sense in the world. When you have worked so hard to build something out of nothing, and you have put your sweat, your tears, and your blood into it, it is impossible to give it up and see all of those years, all of that time, and all of that precious, hard-earned money go to waste. And when you think of what will happen to that land when tanks roll over it, bombs blast it, and bullets riddle your house in urban warfare training, it makes you sick, and it makes your blood boil. How can they take something away from us that we worked our whole lives to build, and put everything into it until that is all we live and breathe?

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The environmental overseers of Fort Hood (a current maneuver site) made this statement, “Our mission is to train soldiers to fight and win wars wherever they are sent. To accomplish that training, it is anything but friendly to the environment.”

Fort Hood spends up to 119 days a year just putting out fires set during live fire practice.

Not only will the local communities be dispersed, but the public will be barred from visiting this unique part of the world. It will eventually be abandoned as a massive depleted uranium contamination site.

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November 28, 2010 - Posted by | Militarism

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