45 Years; 66 years; 73 Years; 100 Years; 153 Years; 235 Years

Today is Veterans Day.  It’s a day to remember the ones that came back, and remember the ones that are gone.  It started after WW1.  Memorial Day is the day we remember the fallen.  However, I guess every day is a day to remember the fallen.

Wars are never fought the same way.  There is always a new wrinkle.  New technology. The only common thing is they are costly and people die. But when America commits it is usually worth fighting for.  The Revolutionary War was 235 years ago.  The Civil War 153 years ago.  Both of those were certainly worth fighting.

100 years ago today, at 11 o’ clock in the morning, The Great War ended.  It was the war to end all wars but alas, we know that didn’t happen.  Like WW2, Americans wanted to put the war behind them. There is no monument to WW1 in Washington DC.  The museum for WW1 is in Kansas City, MO.  You ought to go sometime.  Great barbecue and you will learn a lot.

There are no survivors of WW1 around.  My grandfather who passed at age 98 said one of his earliest memories was listening to the radio when he was a little kid and the war ending.  Instead of putting together a Marshall Plan, the policy leaders post WW1 were full of vengeance.  America had one of its worst Presidents ever in place, Woodrow Wilson.   He walked into the post war talks in Paris heralded and left reviled.

It was the first war that used a lot of machines to kill humans.  It was shocking.

America and the military that defends our liberty are entwined forever in words and deeds.  If you read the Preamble to the Constitution closely, it’s all about defense of our individual liberty as humans on earth from despotic and tyrannical governments.  It is proper to celebrate our veterans.  Since Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, they volunteer to serve.  No conscription which is how Milton Friedman thought it should be.

The policies enacted at the end of WW1 that the winners put in place led to the next war.  You can still find WW2 vets who walk among us.  The museum you need to go see is in New Orleans.  I was on the Board of Trustees for that museum and even if you are a person full of social justice or a pacifist, there is something there for you.  WW2 killed at least 60 million people who were either soldiers or civilians.  It was fought on almost every continent.  No nation was immune from its effects, or after effects.  There are veterans of the war still alive.  A young one is 90.  The boys came home and filed it away.  They didn’t want to talk about or relive the experience, but at their advanced ages sometimes they do.

The Korean War has a monument in Washington DC, but doesn’t really have a museum. They tried to get one going but getting a museum up and running is extremely hard.  My father in law was an officer and fought in the Korean War.  He would never talk about it but we later learned he fought at Bloody Ridge, and was one of the first infantry units in the fight.  Even though war was fully mechanized by then, that battle was close quarters and much of it was fought hand to hand.  You can chat with Korean War vets today.  They are in their 80’s.

If you are my age, you most certainly remember Vietnam.  My uncle went.  He won’t talk about it.  When you talk to people from that time that were 10 years older than me, they know lots of people that went.  America had a draft back then.  My brother in law barely missed.  Another friend of mine had his number called.  Some historians think it was a disaster and others think strategically it was a war worth fighting.  I think the lesson we should take away is that we never ever commit to something like that unless we want to go full out and win it.

Of course, we are now immersed in the war on Terror.  It’s been 16 long years.  It’s one we have to win.  The alternative is pretty painful when you think about it.

Hug a vet today.  You don’t have to thank them.  Just give them some love.