Futility

Yet another day glorifying those who make war. How many does this make? I have sympathy for their circumstances, whether conscripted against their will by a draft or economic hardship, but I have no great love for the military. And I say this as the ex-wife of a sailor and daughter-in-law of another sailor. The more we pay tribute to the idea that war is always necessary (it's not) and dying is sacrifice (it's not), the more we will perpetuate this mentality. But I'm now living in a country that's so far up its own jingoism it can't even remember when American flags weren't festooned everywhere on non-holidays, when God Bless 'Murica wasn't forcibly inserted into the seventh inning stretch, when people could discuss the concept of a peace dividend, diplomacy, using our might to do some good in the world instead of killing. I choose to remember, on this day and Remembrance Day, all those who succumbed to the futility of war through bad luck and no fault of their own.