The problem with Veterans' Day
Nov. 11th, 2013 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
necturusThe premise is sound enough: let's take a day to remember those who fought, and in many cases died, to protect our homeland, our communities, and our way of life. My father, for instance, was an infantryman in General Patton's Third Army, and fought at The Bulge and the Siegfried Line. The enemy he faced was perhaps the most profoundly evil force in human history, Nazi Germany. My father survived the war and is now in his 90th year of life, but many of his comrades were not so lucky. Do they not deserve the honor and remembrance of a grateful nation? Of course they do.
But what about the other wars -- wars fought not to defend anyone's home or loved ones, but to rob other peoples of their lands, resources, or sovereignty? How are the men and women who fight in these wars much different from the German soldiers my father fought? And if we honor such veterans, what about the 100,000+ Iraqi and Afghan civilians and as many as as three million Vietnamese who died at their hands? If Americans killed more Indochinese civilians than Pol Pot, one of the most infamous mass killers of the twentieth century, how is our celebration of Veterans' Day much different from Japan's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the soldiers and sailors who died in that country's wars of aggression?
The eleventh of November was originally Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice that ended World War I ninety-five years ago. The first World War was perhaps the most senseless war ever fought, a war no one wanted that mowed down an entire generation of Europe's youth and accomplished nothing but to abolish the old imperial regimes and unleash nationalist and irredentist movements that would give rise to fascism. The end of such a war deserves remembrance, lest anything like it ever be allowed to break out again. Yet today I head nothing about it on my radio, where the talk was all of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf.
Next year will mark 100 years since the start of the first World War and the battles of the Marne and Tannenberg. Let us hope that those anniversaries get at least as much attention as those of the American Civil War 150 years ago have got.
But what about the other wars -- wars fought not to defend anyone's home or loved ones, but to rob other peoples of their lands, resources, or sovereignty? How are the men and women who fight in these wars much different from the German soldiers my father fought? And if we honor such veterans, what about the 100,000+ Iraqi and Afghan civilians and as many as as three million Vietnamese who died at their hands? If Americans killed more Indochinese civilians than Pol Pot, one of the most infamous mass killers of the twentieth century, how is our celebration of Veterans' Day much different from Japan's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the soldiers and sailors who died in that country's wars of aggression?
The eleventh of November was originally Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice that ended World War I ninety-five years ago. The first World War was perhaps the most senseless war ever fought, a war no one wanted that mowed down an entire generation of Europe's youth and accomplished nothing but to abolish the old imperial regimes and unleash nationalist and irredentist movements that would give rise to fascism. The end of such a war deserves remembrance, lest anything like it ever be allowed to break out again. Yet today I head nothing about it on my radio, where the talk was all of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf.
Next year will mark 100 years since the start of the first World War and the battles of the Marne and Tannenberg. Let us hope that those anniversaries get at least as much attention as those of the American Civil War 150 years ago have got.
