Posted On: Tuesday - May 29th 2018 8:58PM MST
In Topics: History The Neocons
It's not that Peak Stupidity doesn't care a whit about fallen soldiers, but I didn't want to make any derogatory comments about the current US military yesterday, so I let it be.
The original Decoration Day was brought about in 1868 by a US Army commander, one, General John Logan, as described herein. The date was chosen simply because there had been no significant battles fought in the War of Northern Aggression on that date. That should tell you that there WERE a whole lot of battles, and more Americans were killed in that war than in all others combined. There were ~ 650,000 men killed and over 400,000 wounded. On a per capita basis, with the States in 1860 having right about 10% of the current population, that'd be the equivalent of 6-7 million American men being killed in a war... almost unthinkable compared to today's conflicts with overwhelming manpower and firepower.
It is this war that should have the most thought given to it on Memorial Days. Of course, Vietnam is the most recent with many Americans killed and others here to remember. Vietnam was the last war that had soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were not in the military on a voluntary basis involved. With exceptions, to me, the deaths in those wars that involved the drafting of men who mostly want no part in it, are the most tragic. Drafting these men to fight their fellow Americans by the invasion of States that wanted to quit the Union was NOT and easy matter either - one can look up the draft riots in the North during that war.
Of course, there are heroes in the volunteer military we have today, and people who did sign up to kill the people who attacked NY City in 2001, for example. OK, after a year of fighting in Afghanistan, who were we really after anymore, however? Now after 16 years (> 1/2 of the length of the Thirty Years War in Europe, for crying out loud), whoever is really responsible is too old or dead now to matter. In general, the US military since the mid 1970's is made up of people who joined to get out of poverty, learn some skills on the taxpayer's dime, get free college, or see the world. Good on 'em, but it's not the same as the milliions of Rebels who fought for their homes, the GI's in WWII who fought the Nazis, or the draftees who fought against Communism (or so it seemed) in Korea and Vietnam through no idea of their own.
No Americans who've died in the last two or three decades in the various non-declared wars all over the globe died defending America, no matter how much they tragically believed it. That's the shame of it this Memorial Day. The Neocon's wars around the globe need to end - that'd be the best way to honor this holiday.
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