Armistice Day memorialized the end in November 1918 of the Great War, which was widely advertised as “the war to end all wars.” Sadly, it became something of a prelude to what some historians have called a century of total war, and the Great War was downgraded to World War I. After World War II, in which 400,000 Americans were killed, it seemed appropriate to expand the meaning of Armistice Day.
In 1947, Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Ala., organized a “Veterans Day” parade, and the idea spread. By 1954 President Eisenhower, who knew all too well the ways of war, signed a bill proclaiming Nov. 11 as Veterans Day and called upon Americans everywhere to work for peace.
In 1968 Veterans Day fell victim to the fad of celebrating national holidays on Mondays or Fridays to create the sacred three-day weekend, when Congress proclaimed that it should be celebrated on the fourth Monday of October.
Fortunately this travesty was ended in 1978 when the holiday was returned to a day with a semblance of historical significance, Nov. 11.
The best way to honor Veterans Day is to take President Eisenhower’s admonition to heart and work for peace in the future, resolving that, henceforth, Americans will have to serve only in wars where America’s vital interests are truly at stake.
Over the past 50 years, American soldiers have been repeatedly engaged in undeclared wars without clear objectives. And far too many find themselves unable to deal with the traumas they are compelled to endure thanks to the orders of politicians.
While more than 7,000 American servicemembers directly lost their lives in America’s post-9/11 wars, more than four times that number committed suicide, according to a study by the Costs of War Project at Brown University.
“The study finds that there are factors unique to the post-9/11 era, including a huge increase in exposure to improvised explosive devices (IEDs), an attendant rise in traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and modern medical advances that have allowed service members to survive these and other physical traumas and return to the frontlines in multiple deployments,” they reported. “The combination of multiple traumatic exposures, chronic pain, and lasting physical wounds is linked to suicidal behaviors.”
Meanwhile, America’s post-9/11 wars have caused the deaths and displacement of millions more, as well as the further indebtedness of American taxpayers.
Yet even today, we see the president of the United States sabre rattling around the world, generally without congressional authorization to do so.
If we want to honor our veterans and our troops, we would stop putting more young men and women in harm’s way without at least a formal debate and vote in Congress. And from a strictly resource-based perspective, instead of squandering so much money on military interventionism abroad, let’s help our veterans here at home. Or is that too much to ask?
A version of this editorial was first published in the Orange County Register in 2008.