Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. Our veterans are the courageous men and women who, over the many decades, have been called upon to settle our nation’s most serious disagreements with foreign powers, disagreements that often were the result of a poorly formulated foreign policy and defective diplomacy. When the faulty work of diplomats and politicians breaks down and fails, as it frequently does, the armed forces are called into the breech to lay their precious lives on the line and to put things right again. But the men and women of the armed forces, unlike the politicians, are expected to succeed, for their supreme effort constitutes the final roll of the dice. Upon their skill, courage and determination hangs the nation’s fate.

Consider what took place immediately following the end of World War I, the “war to end all wars.” When that protracted struggle was won at great cost in human lives, a “peace” treaty was drafted by a collection of career politicians and diplomats from the conquering nations, men thought to be the most experienced and capable of the age, yet their treaty contained within it the seeds of the next war. In the ensuing years, further war seeds were heedlessly scattered and sown through a series of naïve disarmament agreements and severe cuts in military spending, cuts that left us wholly unprepared when war finally fell upon us. The war that came as a result of those tragic missteps is now referred to as World War II. World War II completely engulfed the very next generation of young Americans and consumed many of them. Aside from the cosmic cataclysm that gave birth to our planet, there never has been a greater upheaval.

During and following the Second World War, decisions were made by our political leaders that led us into the so-called Cold War, with notable and bloody flair ups in hotspots like Korea and Vietnam. And at this very moment, we are desperately locked in two savage foreign conflicts, one in Iraq, another in Afghanistan.

Today we pause briefly to salute those who have fought, and those who now are fighting, our nation’s wars. They, old soldiers and new soldiers alike, seldom question or debate the faulty diplomacy that placed them on the field of battle. All that matters to them is that their duly elected and appointed leaders called them to serve in a perilous hour, and to their everlasting credit, they valiantly and unhesitatingly answered the call.

Let us all pray that someday, in the not too distant future, our political leaders will develop the same sense of duty, honor and genuine patriotism that has always been so nobly and abundantly displayed in our brave fighting men and women.