This Memorial Day, I made a point to do something I do every Memorial Day: call my father and thank him not only for giving up over a year of his life to fight in a war that he and his comrades would be hated for, for coming back to a nation that despised them and called them “babykillers,” and for helping create an American disappetite for war that persists today, and for guiding me on a path where I could see through the bluster and fanfare and remember that being a solider isn’t just another job, and war isn’t just another day. Memorial Day is a day to remember that every war is dreamed up by men on one side of the battle lines or the other with dreams of power and stature, wealth and influence, and whether those men needs to be stopped by an opposing force or whether those men need to be stopped by those at home, war is dreamt by men far from the battlefield, not by soldiers who give their lives and battle fiercely while hoping for nothing but peace and an eventual return to their families and loved ones.

Over at the Nation, John Nichols writes the following about Memorial Day:

The wisdom of wars can be debated on any day, and this column has not hesitated to question the thinking — or, to be more precise, the lack of thinking — that has led the United States to the current quagmire in Iraq.

But on Memorial Day, it is well to pause from the debate to remember those whose lives have been lost, not merely to the fool’s mission of the contemporary moment but to all those battles – noble and ignoble – that have claimed the sons and daughters of this and every land.

After the bloodiest and most divisive of America’s wars, the poet Walt Whitman offered a dirge for two soldiers of the opposing armies — Civil War veterans, buried side by side. His poem is an apt reminder that, when the fighting is done, those who warred against one another often find themselves in the same place. It is appropriate that we should garland each grave, understanding on this day above all others that wars are conceived by presidents and prime ministers, not soldiers.

He then follows with Whitman’s words regarding the civil war, and make sure to read the comments for letters from president and solider alike that will remind you that Memorial Day isn’t about barbeques and discount sales; it’s about remembrance and honor, grief and the promise of peace, and how hard it is and how necessary it is to fight for that peace against all enemies, both foriegn and domestic, both mad with delusions of grandeur abroad, and here at home.

[ A Time to Mourn ]
Source: The Nation