Veterans

We have a public holiday in the U.S. which has been co-opted by the military from the pacifists. Veterans' Day was originally Armistice Day, a marking of the end of the gruesome carnage of World War I. That war, The War to End All Wars, killed 16.5 million people. That was nearly 1% of the total world population in 1914.

 

With a world population that has exploded since then, the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 have bee met with a shrug in parts of the world which are not directly impacted by the violence. Militarism is flourishing in its new media packaging as "peace keeping" or "nation building". Reporters, once horrified and skeptical reporters of war, are now accessories in military actions, supported by their corporate bosses. They embed themselves with troops of various stripes. They tout their own casualties in terms of martyrdom. Few reporters objectively portray the human cost of the carnage they report. They focus on military casualties and the effect of large munitions on architecture.

 

As a humanist, I still mark November 11th as a day to reflect on the futility of war. I reflect on the lack of any control on guns and military equipment manufacture worldwide. I reflect on the fortunes made by men in suits on the explosives that kill the barefoot poor. I renew my personal commitment to nonviolence in my own life. I renew my commitment to promoting peaceful and joyful existence for all people through the personal practice of nonviolence.