Believe it or not, November 11th was not made a holiday in order to celebrate war, support troops, or cheer the 11th year of occupying Afghanistan. This day was made a holiday in order to celebrate an armistice that ended what was up until that point, in 1918, one of the worst things our species had thus far done to itself, namely World War I.
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A ten-year campaign was launched in 1918 that in 1928 created the Kellogg-Briand Pact, legally banning all wars. That treaty is still on the books, which is why war making is a criminal act and how Nazis came to be prosecuted for it.
“[O]n November 11, 1918, there ended the most unnecessary, the most financially exhausting, and the most terribly fatal of all the wars that the world has ever known. Twenty millions of men and women, in that war, were killed outright, or died later from wounds. The Spanish influenza, admittedly caused by the War and nothing else, killed, in various lands, one hundred million persons more.” — Thomas Hall Shastid, 1927.
Many active-duty service men are opposed to the endless wars, which only weaken our national security and increase terrorism. See this, this, this, this, this, this and this.
It is only the elite who want war. As Nazi leader Hermann Goering famously said:
Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Today, I sincerely and passionately honor our veterans.
So many have endured unimaginable hardship, trauma or injury. Some have paid the ultimate price to defend our country.
Veterans are Against the Iraq War
You might assume veterans of the Iraq war support the war.
Overwhelmingly, that is false.
Talk to some of the veterans. By and large, they think that the invasion of Iraq, or at least our continued occupation, is wrong.
They have seen first-hand the killing and maiming of innocent Iraqi civillians.
They have heard the cries of those falsely accused, who were shipped off to Abu Ghraib.
They have woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, reliving the nightmares they experienced.
They know that the chicken-hawk civilians who started the war and their yes-men in the military leadership are wrong, that the war should be stopped, and the troops brought home.
Renewing My Commitment
That’s why on Veterans’ day, I am honoring the brave men and women who served in the military by renewing my commitment to end the Iraq war.
The Iraq war might have been forgotten by the mainstream media, but I will not forget the troops and veterans. I will fight to end the war [all unnecessary wars] . . . for them.
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