Jack gets his Wednesday guest post up on Wednesday for a change – –

Monday was Veteran’s day in the US and the day after Remembrance Sunday in Britain. Both solemn occasions.

I was coming home in my truck around 10 am on Monday and realized that there would be a parade. Just below our neighboring elementary school the kids were lined up both sides of the road. They saw me, an old white haired guy in a truck and assumed I was leading the parade. As they clapped and waved I slowed and waved back, while the teachers wondered why the parade had started early.

But I’m not a veteran and have never ‘served’ in any capacity. However, my Dad volunteered for the Royal Air Force in early 1940. He did that because he could avoid being drafted into the army and being trained to kill. But he spent most of the war in Egypt where he came close to being killed or taken prisoner. He left behind, until he came home, his wife and daughter – and me on the way.

Why do young men or women sign up to go off and fight? Mostly because they have few options – no work opportunities or if there’s a draft they might not have influential connections to get them off the hook. Sometimes because they actually believe it’s the ‘right thing’.

As far as I can tell, and I’ve done a bit of research, all wars are economic – to gain resources. Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe; the Middle East has oil – – –

But after the wars are over it all becomes about freedom and democracy. During WW2 none of the allied nations cared about the Jews, although they knew about the camps. As soon as it was over it was about the Holocaust. WW1 was even more obviously just about empires fighting over territory. So it has always been!

The elderly men (and they’re almost always men) who start the wars never actually fight in them – it’s just a game to them.

The price that’s paid isn’t just in the needless deaths – –

Recruits to all armies are trained to kill and to kill ruthlessly. If you want to win it has to be that way. There are no ‘rules of war’ and never have been. But since that enemy often looks like us they must be turned into the ‘other’ and sub-human – Huns, Japs, Chinks, Argies. It’s easier to kill a sub-human after all – –

I’m a pacifist and always have been and so when these days come round each year I have very mixed feelings.

Wendy spent Veteran’s day collecting boxes of clothes to distribute to homeless people. I can guarantee that many will be veterans of – Korean war, Vietnam war. Both Iraq wars, Afghanistan war – – –

A hero’s welcome?

Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.