I find no open thread, nor any mislabeled column by Phillybluesfan. Not to usurp anything, but I figure I'd put a container up until Philly pops in with something.

So, something brought to my attention by the good folks at World Beyond War (worldbeyondwar.org) is that this November 11 will be the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice for which Armistice Day was originally named. The US, of course doesn't celebrate that, because it is a celebration of peace via the celebration and memorialization of a peace accord ending a war. We choose, instead, to celebrate Veterans Day, even though we already have a Memorial Day, on the theory that we cannot celebrate our veterans enough because: 1) that's about all that we do for them and 2) we need to continually praise warriors, and thereby war, because that is what we do; we are a warfare state, in it for the long haul, devoted to creating and fighting and/or supporting other folks' wars of all types in as many parts of the globe as possible.

Perhaps we need a concerted effort this Veterans Day to push the alternative narrative that we need no more veterans, but need to be out there waging peace. The economic benefit from shutting down our war machine would provide every living veteran with a luxurious standard of living, or, alternatively, help make all of the 99% much more comfortable than they are now.

EOR (end of rant)