Military to Civilian (and Halfway Back Again)

[Glassfan]

The veteran population is indeed in general decline - primarily because the vast number of WW II vets are dying-out - skewing the sample. But there are millions of new veterans from the Gulf War period; there will be no shortages (...and there will always be more wars). Furthermore, as the graphs demonstrate, it's no longer just white males. There are growing numbers of Female, Black and other minorities among vets - increasingly reflecting American society in general.

I think the attention we give to veterans one or two days a year is not a "fetish". It's consistant with what others have said above, that these guys are largely ignored most of the time - unless one of them gets up in a tower with a rifle. Often they are depicted as an economic burden. The two main veteran stories in American media right now are the "Return of the Traitor" and the once-a-decade VA scandal.

 

[Flying Pig]

What would be the alternative, though? You don't see news stories about other minorities in society unless they do something interesting - you never hear a story about teachers, for example, until there's an education scandal. Commemorating the military on occasion does have a place, and that's implicit in the name 'Remembrance Day' - a society which keeps a professional army has a disconnect between the people who declare wars and the people who fight them. There needs to be something to remind people that wars aren't an abstract concept or simply movements on maps, but trades made in the lives of real people.

 

[Formaldehyde]

But doesn't the glorification of war do just the opposite? Remembering those who died in combat is one thing. Using it as a pretext to generate excessive nationalism is quite another.

I think the attitude towards war in the US would be far different if we ever had high casualties from a major conflict fought on our soil, such as what occurred with the Soviet Union during WWII. Even the UK only had 1% of its population killed compared to over 13% of the Soviet population. But that is still 3 times higher than the US deaths.

 

[Flying Pig]

Indeed, so it's pointedly not part of our remembrance services.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Hmm. How odd. It is certainly part of ours.

Memorial Day: Honor the Peace Seekers

Our highest patriotism on this Memorial Day should not simply be to mourn those Americans who have died fighting in the uniform of our country, but more importantly, we should all vow that unnecessary wars -- like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan -- will never, ever happen again.

The costs in American lives needlessly lost, and soldiers maimed, (with numbers reaching into the hundreds of thousands) have been devastating to their families and to the very fabric of who we are and what we stand for.

Everyone knows that last two wars, Iraq and Vietnam, were based on lies and deceit from politicians with ulterior, and hidden, motives. These immoral wars, there is no other word for them, have unnecessarily squandered the lives of more than 400,000 brave American soldiers, fighting for reasons that had nothing to do with American's core security.

Glorious Parades are cheap on Memorial Day, but as George McGovern said 40 year ago, "I'm fed up with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."

Today, paunchy old men, who never served in the military, are once again beating the drums of war calling for American involvement in Syria or the Ukraine.

We have been fortunate in the past in that America's geographic isolation has mostly protected us from the many violent conflicts that have so decimated Europe and Asia. Our empire has thrived in the last century because of our democracy, economic vitality, education and culture -- in spite of our recent war mongering around the world. In fact our military expenditures, and the enmity we are attracting, are making us weaker not stronger. Our unnecessary wars are virtually killing the future of our great country

So, on this Memorial Day let us glorify our soldiers, but not our past futile wars. Instead let us honor the peace Presidents and politicians who are trying to keep us out of new wars after a decade of military misadventures. Let us keep our troops ready for when and where we absolutely need them, when our freedoms are really threatened.

Have we so quickly forgotten the bloody lessons of the last decade?

 

[Flying Pig]

I hate to be so blunt, but what you've posted is a philosophical claim that wars should not be fought at all, rather than any actual evidence that memorial day parades glorify warfare.