Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day and Veterans Day

Please go read the article by Stephen Lendman entitled "Memorial and Veterans Day Hypocrisy". Here's part of what it says:

Both holidays wouldn’t be needed in a nation dedicated to peace, but one committed to perpetual war for an unattainable peace dishonors its youth in life and disingenuously honors those who died in imperial wars for conquest and plunder. Nations waging wars only guarantee more of them in an endless cycle of violence, militarism, brutality and shameless inhumanity for those made to suffer and die in combat theaters - so the privileged who get to stay home can profit from them.

People don’t want wars but can always be made to support and fight in them using the proved method of choice that always works - fear based on shameless lies and deception by governments with hidden motives unrevealed because who would go along with them if they did. Only by deceitfully scaring people enough to believe the nation’s security is threatened will they support foreign wars and fight in them thinking they must. When traumatized enough, those wanting peace can be convinced to go along with the most outlandish schemes planned that if ever explained would be condemned and never supported.
...
These two federal holidays warrant special condemnation. They represent a galling legacy of endless wars and false patriotic glorification of them including the so-called “good” one there was nothing good about as Ben Franklin knew and once said “There was never a good war or a bad peace.” Choosing days to honor the dead who sacrificed everything is a sacrilege and failure to note they died in vain on the altar of power and privilege for the few. Their deaths assure an unending cycle of violence and killing with legions of nameless, faceless grave sites ahead only to be known by those who’ll experience unconscionable loss.

These commemorative days stand above other federal holidays as symbols of this nation’s depravity and ultimate crime against humanity and wasted lives it’s taken.

When are we going to have a Peace Day? If we are to survive as a species, that is what we need.

UPDATE: Actually, it turns out there is a Peace Day. Funny. I'd never heard about it. But on an impulse I googled it and there it was. Do click through and read all about it.

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