As a former Air Force officer, Memorial Day is a day of deep conflict for me. I remember very clearly the ideas and concepts which motivated me during the Vietnam War or the American War as the Vietnamese refer to it. I was proud of my country and the stand we were taking in protecting the South Vietnamese against the Communist North Vietnamese.
Now with many years separating me from those events and having had time to review the flow of actions and ideas leading up to our involvement in Vietnam and many other wars, I see the utter flaw of Patriotism as defined by the State and the application of military force to achieve national goals.
I see the great somber tributes paid on this Day to the fallen are really not tributes to those who died but a means to justify State sponsored wars to the survivors of the fallen. A means to divert hard questions about, “Why did my husband/wife/child need to die?” to a somber silence. A means of making anyone who might ask those questions seem unpatriotic or worse disrespectful of those who gave the last full measure of their devotion.
Well it is time for us, the living, to declare on this Memorial Day, our resolve to not spend another life on any war where our own personal survival is not directly threatened. A day to look at our military cemeteries and declare too many have died in vain, too many have fallen for the lies of God and Country, and just as evil, too many have people in foreign lands have had their lives, their families, and their property destroyed by the actions of those of us who believed we were serving our country.