Memorial Day, 2019

Memorial Day, 2019, by George Harris

Today marks my 85th Memorial Day.  But, of course, I really don’t remember much about the first few, although there are people who would swear I am old enough to remember the first one that apparently took place in1868 when it was known as Decoration Day.  This was the day when the graves of those who died in the service of our Nation were decorated.  A hundred years later, Decoration Day and three other holidays were juggled around to provide long weekends for all and the name was changed to Memorial Day.  Now we mostly celebrate the sales and long weekends these holidays bring.

Today our young men and women find themselves in the far corners of the world, in places some folks can’t even find on a map.  They are supposedly there as “advisors” but more often than not they find themselves locked in mortal combat with a relentless enemy bent on destroying them.  And at other times they are attacked by those they considered to be friendly but alas they turn out to be wolves who have found their way in with the sole mission of killing the “enemy”, our young men and women.

Memorial Day continues to be an important day since we continue to be engaged in the war-the longest war in our history with the exception of our War on Drugs, which has been going on for something on the order of a half century.  Most everyone who reads these meager words surely knows someone who was a casualty of one of these wars.  I have been fortunate to have never lost anyone to the drug war but lost friends in some of the other wars beginning with World War II and on through to today.  In my time in Vietnam, I was unfortunate enough to see the light go out of the eyes of young men who were savaged by that war.  It is a sight and memory that are still with me after more than a half-century.  Once during an oral history session, the historian asked me what I would most remember about Vietnam and without blinking an eye I replied, “The smell of blood.”  It stays with you for the rest or your life.

Our president has chosen to invalidate the Iran Nuclear Agreement, an agreement reached in 2015 between the Islamic Republic of Iran and a group of world powers:  the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China, Germany and the European Union.  Now John Bolton, his National Security Advisor is strongly encouraging him to declare war on Iran.  Although the president denies it, it is reported that plans are being made to send 120,000 troops to the area.  As it stands at the moment, Iran has some 800,000+ members in their armed forces (this includes some 200,000 reserves), which gives them a near 7:1 advantage.  Of course, the president says we would send more personnel but I would think it would take perhaps two or three MILLION troops to defeat Iran or risk another decade’s long war.

And there is this ongoing squabble with Venezuela and the rumor mill has it that we might even send troops there to bring about a “ regime change”.   Are we prepared for this as a nation?  Are we prepared for any of this?  Are we prepared to sacrifice more of our young men on the altar of the god of war?   To add more memories to our Memorial Day celebration?  I think not.  We can’t fix our roads and bridges, our Congress can pass a budget, we can’t figure out how to provide reasonable health care to our citizens, we engaged in trade wars and our national debt is growing exponentially.  Our present armed forces personnel and equipment are worn out from more than a decade and a half of fighting.

So perhaps on this Memorial Day, we each can take a moment to reflect on why we celebrate Memorial Day and ask ourselves if we wish to honor the god of war.

God bless our Armed Forces and God bless the United States of America.