War and Peace

Originally, November 11,
and more exactly,
the 11th hour of the 11th day or the 11th month,
was
Armistice Day

the day wars were going
to end
the day World War I
was officially over,
"the war to end all wars,"

and then the vindictive
"peace" sowed the seeds
for one of the most necessary of all
wars,
World War II

and those Veterans
include many of our fathers and grandfathers
and most of them are
dead,
but to them,
who fought in a war to stop a mad
and crazy man
with a mad and crazy idea:
we now offer thanks

Veterans Day

And of course,
to any of our soldiers, in any war,
just doing their duty,
trying their best to serve and protect
their country,
we offer our gratitude.


In the local paper,
the Sonoma Index Tribune,
in one of his many fine editorials
David Bolling praises Veterans,
and looks at the overall picture of
a country whose wars are always
"over there"
and the dangers
of this separation of the men and women
doing to amazing and awful work
of war,
and the civilians back home.

Here's one part of the editorial:
President Eisenhower understood this clearly when he said, "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

You can read the rest
at
David Bolling's Veteran's Day editorial


And now,
amazingly we have a President-elect who stood up
a while back and bravely made these
distinctions:
wars that were necessary: Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War II
and
those that perhaps were not.

He wasn't against all wars,
he said, Barack Obama
on October 2, 2002:
I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war.


the whole of his speech is
at Wikipedia on Barack Obama's Iraq Speech of October 2002

And what can I add to
that?

Very little.

Except to admit
that while not serving in the military
I have partaken in the emotional equivalent
of "dumb wars."

Now is always a good time
to stop
that sort of nonsense.

Good
old
Now.