The best way to honor war dead is to stop making more of them.

[alarimer]

I was thinking about this yesterday as I drove to Virginia Beach while listening to Dave Marsh's Kick Out the Jams. He was doing an anti-war Memorial day playlist and it pretty much covered all the bases. There were songs about dead kids who never came back, like Jason Isbell's Dress Blues (which you should really listen to, it is very moving), Bruce Robison's Traveling Soldier. And then some actually anti-war songs like "I ain't Marching Anymore".

Anyway, it got me to thinking that everyone is going to be out at the beach or at BBQs today without really thinking about why this day exists at all. Oh, sure, some politicians are going to mouth platitudes about sacrifice and honor. Meanwhile, the politicians themselves never sacrifice anything. And most of us don't either. We pay lip service and that's about it. Those of us on this website are very engaged and we can tell when we are being lied and manipulated into wars of choice but most of the rest of the country cannot see that. They buy into the wars that are sold to us on TV like soap and aspirin without so much as a critical thought, at least in the beginning. Now, of course, most of us in this country want those wars to end and for us to stop getting involved. But somehow that never translates into action on the part of politicians.

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day (as it was until 1968) as a way to honor the dead of the Civil War, a horrific conflict that should never have happened. Later it was expanded after WWI, which was called the War to End All Wars. It didn't. And I am not trying to imply that all wars are unnecessary. World War II comes to mind. Certainly since then, every single conflict we have been involved in HAS been unnecessary, usually the result of some failed foreign policy gambit or at the behest of the military-industrial complex, who constantly build newer and bigger weapons and need some place to try them out. Okay, that's creeping into conspiracy theory territory a little. But we are hearing the drumbeats for another war, this time to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. It never ends, does it?

So honor war dead by not making more of them. One way we can do that is to stop inciting others to want to kill us. Drone attacks on weddings, attack helicopter attacks on children. Just stop it now please.

[Zoeisright]

1. Exactly.

While of course all veterans should be honored for their service and treated properly by society, glorification of war and what is means is immoral and sick.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. I sacrificed 8 years of my life (2001-09) protesting against Bush and Cheney and

basically throwing my career away so I could protest against them and their policies. Given the chance, I would do exactly the same thing again (maybe smarter the 2nd time round), such is the importance I ascribe to it. I have few regrets over the course I chose.

Those who went to Canada, Sweden or jail during the Vietnam War to protest Vietnam also sacrificed.

Sacrifice comes in many different forms and sizes is all I'm saying.

[alarimer]

3. I agree

And I also realize that Memorial Day should also include those who did not die directly as a result of their service but who suffered in some other ways. And probably other people who suffered as a result of war or various calamities. I know that it typically refers to military dead but really it should be about remembering all who sacrificed: MLK (who does have his own day, I realize) and John and Robert Kennedy, among others who were cut down. Those three activities in Mississippi murdered as a result of their activism. The Kent State victims. I am sure the list is extensive and probably includes many names which are unfamiliar to most, people who did the right thing in the face of pressure to do otherwise.

All of them also while they were attempting to make this a better country. And they should also be honored, as they are in most cases.

[coalition_unwilling]

4. Well, Daniel Ellsberg has said that the War in Vietnam will not be truly over until

we erect a monument in D.C. to those who resisted the war. To which I might add . . . and maybe a monument also to the 2-3 million southeast Asians who perished during our 20 years' involvement in the war.

[bahrbearian]

6. +1 That is what stopped the Viet Nam war, the Resistance, not the Soldiers Fighting there

But for refusing to go we were called traitors and cowards. Dishonorable discharged and those who were sent to prison are the true hero's.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. The courage and tenacity of the Vietnamese soldiers may have also

played a role in ending the war or at least fighting us to what Cronkite called after Tet '68 a 'stalemate.'

Not sure there were any 'true heroes' in this story, except maybe Norman Morrison. And where is the monument to him? Morrison lives on in the memories of those who understand what Lincoln meant when he talked about the "last, full measure of devotion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison

[bahrbearian]

10. If a foreign Army tried to occupy this country, we would fight the same too.

Just like Iraq and Afghanistan. I had forgotten about Norman Morrison so sad, but he showed more courage than any soldier that fought over there.

[coalition_unwilling]

12. "More courage"? I'm not sure I or Morrison himself were he asked, would go that far, but

Morrison showed courage, that's for sure. As much as I hated and despised Bush and Cheney, if Saddam Hussein had invaded and occupied us during their Junta, I probably would have joined the armed resistance against the occupation (assuming my wife would let me

[SGMRTDARMY]

14. I can attest to the fact that the NVA

were very good soldiers.
We used to call the Cong Charlie and the NVA Mr. Charles.
I have the deepest respect for the Vietnamese Soldiers.

[coalition_unwilling]

18. Stanley Karnow, in his one-volume history 'Vietnam,' relates

a rather bittersweet anecdote. Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. was speaking after the war to a North Vietnamese colonel and, as Karnor relates:

"You know," he (Summers) boasted to a North Vietnamese colonel after the war, "you never defeated us on the battlefield." To which the Communist officer replied, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant." (p. 19)

That little snippet of dialogue captures for me the Vietnam War in all its magnificent absurdity and mindless destructiveness.

Side note: my Dad was a Marine who landed at Inchon with MacArthur. My Dad said the North Korean soldiers were even tougher than the Marines. Coming from my hard-ass father, that is high praise indeed.

[SunSeeker]

11. Thank you for your service!

[HarveyDarkey]

5. Going around Facebook today

[Gore1FL]

9. Whose pic is that? I'd like to share it there, myself. n/t

[HarveyDarkey]

16. I'm not sure who's it was originally, so I don't know who to give credit to.

I've seen it posted & re-posted multiple times. Just copy & paste the location of this one. I'm sure no one will mind.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. That would be a great bumper sticker.

Perfect sentence.

[jwirr]

13. K&R

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. Exactamundo! Instead of creating our next war with this war,

Just GTFU of everybody else's business and help put the pieces back together.

[LiberalEsto]

17. Amen to that!

Instead of glorifying warfare, we should be protesting war and demanding decent medical care, housing and jobs for returning veterans.

[lunatica]

19. I agree.

Kucinich had a great idea when he said we should have a Department of Peace. Because true peace will only come when countries actually make a concerted international effort to maintain it and to avoid war.