Veterans Day, Nov 11 2008

This picture shows two veteran fighter pilots of the Vietnam War, Dan Cherry and Hong My. They tried to kill each other during the war and now as veterans they embrace.

A military veteran or active duty service person is likely to be someone that at one time in their life signed a blank check with their country to invade and occupy another country and kill innocent people who had not attacked their own country. They sign this blank check in order to receive a monthly check, a reenlistment bonus, and other prizes.

A military veteran could be Chinese, Russian, German, Iranian, North Korean, North Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indian, Italian, Brazilian, Mexican, Roman, Viking, Japanese, English, Greek, Trojan, Persian, Apache, and many others. The veteran could have fought for the Spanish fascists or the Spanish communist, neither worth spilling blood for. They all served in a thousand unnecessary wars started by old men. All war is about plunder, pride, irrational fears, patriotism, and other human emotions.

The veteran was often shamed or forced (drafted) into fighting in unnecessary wars. The White Feather Brigade was a group of women who handed out a white feather to young men in England trying to get them to enlist for World War I.

The veteran was often a young man who was desperate to find a place to belong, or a place to learn a skill.

A veteran will be someone who reenlisted in the military just for a steady paycheck in a weak economy. "Sgt. Ryan Nyhus spent 14 months patrolling the deadly streets of Baghdad, where five members of his platoon were shot and one died. As bad as that was, he would rather go back there than take his chances in this brutal job market. Nyhus re-enlisted last Wednesday, and in so doing joined the growing ranks of those choosing to stay in the U.S. military because of the bleak economy.
"In the Army, you're always guaranteed a steady paycheck and a job," said the 21-year-old Nyhus. "Deploying's something that's going to happen. That's a fact of life in the Army — a fact of life in the infantry."The veteran was often a desperate young man who was lied to by a recruiter.

A veteran may be someone whose witness to horrors turns him into a reticent recluse. Other veterans will want parades, adulation, and the nation to forever be in debt to them.

43,000 people who enlisted in the U.S. Military after 2001 have been made citizens. They were not citizens when they enlisted. Many men would fight for many countries other than their own country if the pay was good enough. The French Foreign Legion consisted of 74% foreigners and was known for its strong esprit de corps.

The best way to help a veteran is to stop producing belligerent and bellicose politicians and state leaders who act like bullies that creates wars that creates veterans.

War is the ultimate fighting sport.

If there were no nation wars there would be gang wars, and men who served in the gang wars would soon call themselves veterans.

Charles Tolleson

"War is the health of the State". Randolph Bourne