Veteran's Day 2021

 

It was 11:11 AM on November 11th, 1918.  Politicians began to congratulate themselves for a job well done, and make plans on how to divide up the world.  Almost in a dream world, an American President began the program of creating an organization that would prove that any of them learned something.

In a German military hospital, a mustard-gas blinded corporal of the Bavarian Army cursed the fates and blamed the Jews.

And the blood of 500,000 men in a patch of mud once known as Paschendale began to nourish grass and poppies.

As we "celebrate" Veteran's Day, and we salute those who have died, both in "The War To End All Wars" and every war since, the one thing that plays through my mind is that there are two things common to every war that are necessary ingredients for any war.

One is the ability to hate.  Not for reason, at least good reason.  Just because "we're over here", and "you're over there."

And the other is politicians who have spent 99.9999% of their lives behind a desk and 0.0001% in a trench in Belgium. Or in a MASH unit in Korea. Or in a psych ward back at base.

The war that spawned Armistice Day is a favorite reading spot of mine.  And every new book I read on it, I find myself shaking my head at new stupidities, caused by petty men who thought they moved the world with a wave of their hands.  And it makes me think of ALL the ways God gave them to prevent that war, to prevent the 20 million deaths, much less the 3 1/2 times that in the next war- and the sheer blindness to reason it took them all, from the British Prime Minister to the gunman in Sarajevo, from the dead Austrian Archduke to the murdered Russian mystic, to avoid those chances and let it happen.

So as I salute all vets everywhere for doing a job I couldn't begin to, my prayers, ironically, align with that naive American President- That there might be a lessening of hate, and a lessening of blind politicians.  I pray for men who will fight for it, that will cast aside my skepticism and try to lead the world a better way.