After Armistice Day was rebranded Veterans Day by U.S. Congress, it quickly morphed into an occasion for honoring the military, says the group Veterans’ For Peace.
(Cadogan Hall)
By Veterans For Peace
Over one hundred years ago, in 1918, the world celebrated peace as a universal principal. The first World War had just ended and nations mourning their dead collectively called for an end to all wars. Armistice Day was born and was designated as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated.”
After World War II, the U.S. Congress decided to rebrand Nov. 11 as Veterans Day. Honoring the warrior quickly morphed into honoring the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day was flipped from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism.
Veterans For Peace has taken the lead in lifting up the original intention of Nov. 11th – as a day for peace. As veterans we know that a day that celebrates peace, not war, is the best way to honor the sacrifices of veterans. We want generations after us to never know the destruction war has wrought on people and the earth.
Veterans For Peace is calling on everyone to stand up for peace this Armistice Day. More than ever, the world faces a critical moment. Tensions are heightened around the world and the U.S. is engaged militarily in multiple countries, without an end in sight.
Here at home, we have seen the increasing militarization of our police forces and brutal crackdowns on dissent and people’s uprisings against state power. We must press our government to end reckless military interventions that endanger the entire world. We must build a culture of peace.
This Armistice Day, Veterans For Peace calls on the U.S. public to say no to more war and to demand justice and peace, at home and abroad. We know Peace is Possible and call for an end to all oppressive and violent policies, and for equality for all.
Learn More about Armistice Day.
Maybe we could just celebrate it once again as Armistice Day. That is, a day from which there will be no more veterans of the atrocities we seem to carry out endlessly for our corporate masters.
How Would Americans Feel if Bombed & Invaded by Their Veterans Like 13 Smaller Countries Were? by jay janson
hXXps://countercurrents.org/2021/11/how-would-americans-feel-if-bombed-invaded-by-their-veterans-like-13-smaller-countries-were/
Absolutely, if I remember correctly it was Dennis Kucinich who proposed having a department of peace or something of that nature, which makes good sense, to promote a proactive emphasis on peace, rather than always taking a defensive, paranoid stance. I also think we need to mind our own business and avoid foreign entanglement as much as possible. For example, Taiwan is a concern as a potential place where nuclear war could start if the U.S. and China don’t see eye to eye.
It’s called veteran’s day and is meant to honor U.S, soldiers for serving their country. Instead, U’S. soldiers need to be held responsible and encouraged to refuse to follow unjust orders. Consortium news should have articles that promote resistance from the bottom up starting with convincing young men to not become killers of innocent victims who simply have something we want.
. We need first and foremost to stop honoring these murderers and start prosecuting them along with this country as a whole.
Here in Australia it’s widely overlooked that WWI ended in armistice. The belief is that our side won the war. Our side always wins, because God and righteousness are on our side. We have taken this thought from the USA and UK, who are also Gods to us. We are unable to acknowledge that our foundation myth, the failed attack on Turkey at Gallipoli, was a comprehensive defeat. Australia has created a resilient myth from successive defeats right up until the present in the illegal war on Iraq and ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan. Facts are abolished and the myth prevails. In this way our participation in future victory over the Chinese menace is assured, although it is certain to follow the historic pattern. Willful delusion – avoidable conflict – loss of life – defeat – retreat – myth and a monument in Canberra. We always win. Our ANZACS won WWI.
The Germans had no doubt who had lost the 1914-18 war.
But I don’t dissent other points.
If the Congress had been honest in their rebranding of Armistice Day, they would have called it Cannon Fodder Day. The Washington establishment does not give a damn about veterans. Their concern is keeping the MIC gravy train rolling by casting all veterans as heroes so as to confer honor onto the unnecessary and aggressive wars America has waged, and will continue to wage into the foreseeable future.
Because this Veterans Day coincides with the conclusion of COP 26, we endure an additional insult to our intelligence this year. As we are told how serious our government is about averting climate catastrophe, we watch in dismay as profligate military flyovers pretend to honor our “heroes”. A win-win for the profiteers, a lose-lose for humanity and the climate.
‘Lest we forget’ is exactly what has happened. We have fought war after war and now we remember contemporary veterans who have killed 1,000s of innocent civilians in foreign countries.
The red poppy has been bastardized, which is why I wear a white one.
We claim to be a Christian nation yet how many wars are fought in our own self interest rather than loving our neighbor as ourselves!!
Only way to change things is to make Armistice Day and other similar war commemorations a time to vilify the politicians who send their people off to die.
If those who lead from the very rear know that their legacy will be a reputation as craven cowards they will be far less likely to promote war.