Veterans Day, Armistice Day, What's the Difference?

Dear Mr. President,

Veterans Day, a federal holiday although most businesses are open and the stock market’s humming. War takes no holiday, either—drones continue circling, Special Forces conduct night raids and daily patrols engage “enemy combatants.” When I was a kid, this day was called Armistice Day, commemorating the signing of the Armistice agreement that ended the Great War, “the war to end all wars,” WW I. It was a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace” according to the official proclamation. But in 1954, Congress changed “Armistice” to “Veterans” to honor veterans of all wars, not just veterans of WW I. It seemed reasonable enough; we had gone through an even greater, more devastating war than the Great War and a lesser but no less brutal and pointless war in Korea, and there were millions of veterans to honor for their service. P.L. 83-380 didn’t change the wording of the 1938 law, just that single word, Armistice, but with that change the focus shifted from peace to war, for to honor the warrior is to honor the war. Since then, the national consciousness has shifted further and hardened into present-day acceptance of violence and destruction as standard policy. Tomorrow is Kill List Tuesday, the day you choose whose names rise to the top of the list this week for assassination. This process is declared legal although the justification for it is secret, a matter of “national security.” Summary executions, indefinite detention, covert wars, borderless commando raids and killing by remotely controlled drones are the new normal, accepted foreign policy. Under both Bushes and you, Mr. President, the original concept of Armistice Day—to outlaw war and strive for world peace—has been turned on its head. You have normalized war without end, targeted assassinations, indefinite detention and CIA drone strikes, and all-inclusive surveillance of everyone everywhere is the new reality. We train our young warriors to kill with brutal efficiency and send them off to war with false promises of honor and glory to do the dirty work of politicians and war profiteers, then thank them for their service one day a year. But there is neither glory nor honor in war. Our warriors have slaughtered close to a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than 6,700 of our own came back in coffins, 106,000 were wounded, 247,000 diagnosed by the VA with PTSD, and more than 745,000 have filed disability claims. This is a day not of celebration but of national mourning.