Thanks to (the) Zinn Education Project. On 1 June 1954, less than a year after America exited the Korean War in defeat, the US congress got rid of Armistice Day, which was established in 1919, and started Veterans Day. In place of what had been a celebration of peace, Congress instituted an annual veneration of those who fought in war. America would ever after celebrate not the beauty of peace, but its purveyors of state violence in World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Grenada, Kosovo, Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and more. [...] This might be the biggest Veterans Day yet: Metallica, Rihanna, Eminem and Bruce Springsteen are headlining a huge Concert for Valor on the National Mall in Washington DC, sponsored by Chase Bank, Starbucks and HBO. Hundreds of smaller parades, ceremonies, sporting events and concerts will be held across the country in the shadow of the 14th year of the Global War on Terror. The Armistice-turned-Veterans Day celebrations will be held in a country that has 668 military bases around the globe. They will be held in a country that has conducted military operations in two-thirds of the world’s countries since 9/11. They will be held in a county that spends three quarters of a trillion dollars each year on its military – more than the next thirteen countries combined. They will be held in a country that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives around the world these past 14-years, and which shows no sign of slowing down. What do the millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries who have lost loved ones to America’s wars think of these celebrations? What should veterans coping with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, dealing with traumatic injuries or struggling with chronic unemployment think of these events? What do the families of those soldiers and veterans who have taken their own lives feel?
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:07:47 +0000
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