Veterans' Day in perspective

THIS WAS WRITTEN A LONG TIME AGO, NOVEMBER OF 2005

I think it is right to remember veterans and the sacrifice they have made, and right to honor them. Yet I do feel some ambivalence. We have not one but two holidays honoring our soldiers, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day. I myself have lost track of just why we have two. My best reconstruction is that Memorial Day is honoring those who died in battle while Veterans' Day is honoring them whether or not they died that way or whether they have died yet, but it seems like a pretty fine distinction to warrant separate holidays. There are definite military overtones to Independence Day as well. (There is one holiday we now have in honor of nonviolent resistance to oppression, Martin Luther King Day, though that is not its only meaning and perhaps not its primary one.)

Fundamentally these are holidays celebrating not just our soldiers but most definitely our soldiers. They are national holidays. I am proud of my country in the grand scheme of things, but on the whole I am least proud of our wars, and mostly ashamed.

Where is the holiday honoring the foreign soldiers who have died fighting against us? Where is the holiday honoring civilian victims of war? (We in the US are fortunate to have had very few such victims, as we have not had any wars on our territory since 1865, and even then I believe the civilian victims were few.) Surely one can think of a great many more causes and groups to honor with holidays. They may all have them, in fact, but to have a big time holiday in your honor people have to get off from work.

Of course by holidays I am speaking of national holidays, and that assumption is a reflection of the fact that our primary identity these days is with our nation, and not state or city (go, Newton!). ButI like to think of myself as a citizen of the world first, one who happens to be an American.

General goodwill aside, there is also a practical side for any nation in honoring its veterans. It creates a culture where people are more likely to join the armed forces. If you know that people will honor you with holidays and by putting your name on plaques, offering to die for your country is more appealing. It's worth reflecting that in honoring today's veterans we are encouraging others to become veterans in turn.

I think we mostly assume that a soldier who joins the military is taking an honorable step, and what the nation chooses to use the military for is not the ethical responsibility of the soldier. We don't expect them to understand the nuances of foreign policy. Yet at times I think we could. If someone chose to join the US Army in 1972, when the wisdom and morality of the Vietnam war was being hotly debated, I think it's reasonable not to honor that person's service but perhaps even to hold it against them. A draftee from the late Vietnam era deserves respect, and a volunteer who joined out of economic necessity can be given the benefit of the doubt. Applying these standards to a different time and place, I would suggest that a volunteer in Hitler's army (certainly after it became clear what he was going to use it for) does not deserve our respect, but perhaps the draftees in his army do.

It's hard to know just how to apply these standards to today's world. We hear reports of soldiers in Iraq who are demoralized to find themselves risking their lives to defend people who don't want them to be there. I offer them my deepest sympathy. When they joined they didn't know they would fight in this Iraq war. Yet I think we should urge those thinking of joining the military to do a little research on what the US army has been doing these past few decades, and join with their eyes open.

Yet, to return to the beginning, I do think we are right to honor our veterans for their sacrifice. But perhaps also to consider it in perspective.