For Remembrance Day

Here is Justine Nicholas, on LewRockwell.com, expressing something very close to the way I feel about Memorial Day, in a very sensitive way. The day is set aside to remember those who died in America's wars, and she suggests it be renamed Remembrance Day (Memorial is so abstract). Then she goes on to the inconvenient truth so many Americans are loathe even to consider, let alone acknowledge -- that almost all those who died in our wars died in vain. There's nothing inconsistent about pointing this out while at the same time honoring the potential of lives cut short, the honor and courage displayed by those who died, the individual sense of doing the right thing most soldiers have felt down through the centuries.

So pause at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow (as Congress has suggested) to remember those who have died -- and to make a silent vow that you will do what you can to keep this country from getting involved in future wars that are not truly defensive, that don't serve to protect or extend freedom, that cannot be justified under international law or common-sense morality, and that therefore lead to brave young men and women dying in vain.