Veterans’ Day
Many of the things happening in the world lately are, ultimately, an outgrowth of World War I, which ended 105 years ago today. As I said in the last entry I wrote, I was kind of distracted trying to find the photo I have of my dad in BDUs from his last assignment in the Army.
Both my father, and my father-in-law were career military.
I’ve written here before about how few people these days even know someone who was in the military, much less served themselves. Obviously, I’ve been related, at least tangentially, with the US military most of my life.
My wife, with our travel earlier in the month/week, saw first-hand, the sort of world my parents came from.
More than anything, however, I think time in the military really gets you into a particular routine for everyday life.
You could say the same of organized religion.
This is the time when you do a particular thing. It might not be something that particularly helps you, or makes a lot of sense, but it’s something you do to center (not sure if that’s the right statement, but go with it…).
There’s something important, there.
I would not expect a Marine to steal my stuff. My expectations of a faithful member of a major religion is the same. Or someone who’s on a sports team to which I belong.
Are there concerns with the use of the military?
Absolutely.
Does that make what the NeoHips say true?
No. There’s lots of things that aren’t just there to feed private corporate profits.
Yesterday, the political party of which I used to be a member, put out tweetpost about how JFK was a great antiwar president. I brought up Rocky Versace who came to my attention while I was living in Norfolk.
Check the date of his capture, and square that with the antiwar president’s tenure.
Tempted to go with a Dr. Lexus quote, but there isn’t anything I’m seeing that fits nicely.
Excessive militarism isn’t good for anybody.
But not everything is because some company wants to make money. There’s lots of things that are, actually, done for noble reasons.
All of that said, there is a point of the military. Use of force should be a last resort. And its use in defense (or retaliation) is fine, in my opinion.
What Israel is doing in Gaza is a direct response to the attack on October 7th.
Maybe that would be a role for something like something that’s been operating in the Sinai for around thirty years.
More tomorrow.
To those who’ve served, thank you.