Veteran's Day

[flamin lib]

Today is Veteran’s day.

Today we say thanks for the dedication and sacrifice of those who have been that wall between “them” and us, whoever “they” are. Today we recognize our heroes, all of them, for the time they’ve spent away from home, the hardships they’ve suffered that we can’t really comprehend, the things they’ve done that we wouldn’t do and sometimes the body parts they have left on some dirty street half a world away.

Today is a day for reflection on what we have asked them to do and why we have asked them to do it.

Today is Veteran’s Day because we celebrate those who return from doing our bidding, unlike Memorial Day when we remember those who didn’t.

Go hug a vet today, it’ll do you both good.

[TomInTib]

1. The Band Played Waltzin' Matilda

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen-fifteen my country said, Son
It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done
So they gave me a bayonet and gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
Amidst all the tears, the flag-waving and cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day
Our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that was called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he'd primed himself well
He chased us with bullets and he rained us with shell
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs
And we started all over again

Now those who were living just tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
I saw what it had done and I wished I was dead
Never knew there was worse things than dying

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
To hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

They collected the cripples, the wounded and maimed
They shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
Thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve, to mourn and to pity

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
Nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

So now every April I sit on my porch
And I see the parade pass before me
I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams and past glories
I see the old men, all bent, stiff and sore
The tired old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask, What are they marching for
And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
Year by year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all


Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Now their ghosts can be heard
As they march by the billabong
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

Words & music Eric Bogle

[Kolesar]

5. That song has been my favorite since Garrison Keillor sang it on Prarie Home Companion

...several years ago. "One of my favorites", to be more correct.

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over

I have had such joy carrying a pack in places like Pennsylvania and the Pasayten Wilderness in a peace that was earned by veterans and those who never made it home. If you are reading this, know I am grateful. When I am in Nature, I am with you. When I am politicing in the public sphere, I am *for* you.

[oddmanout]

2. Thank you

To all of you who fought for our country, I want to say thank you. I have a grandfather (WWII) two uncles (Korea/Vietnam) and 2 younger brothers (Gulf War 1) who served. They made the sacrifice for all of us, saw their buddies die around them and came home changed from it. Words fail at expressing my gratitude for their service.

:patriot:

[TygrBright]

3. Yes! If you value your freedom, thank a vet!

They are the embodiment of the "line in the sand" that protects our democracy. We hope and pray that we never have to use them, but honor and value them for their willingness to stand up and put their mortal bodies between our lives and liberties and any threat thereunto.

And we hope and pray that we never CHOOSE to use them for any stupid, greedy, immoral purpose, and cost them their lives and/or their health for the enrichment and/or aggrandizement of a few vile scoundrels.

I'm sorry, vets, that we failed you in the second one. We're doing our best to stop it, now, and I for one am committed to ensuring that every single vet gets the full measure of honor, as well as the health care, family services, retirement and education benefits, that your service merits. Your service is honorable even when abused by those whose first care should be to guard our military resources and use them with the greatest possible care and only when unequivocally required to defend us from a real threat.

appreciatively,
Bright

[sce56]

4. Thank You for my Father CBI WWII,1909-2001, My Son Iraq 2 tours

And of course Thank You for myself twenty years! We need to promise all Vets they will never be called on again to go to war primarily to fill the pockets of the likes of Dick Cheneys Halliburton

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
WAR IS A RACKET

Smedley Darlington Butler

Major General - United States Marine Corps

Born West Chester, Pa., July 30, 1881

Educated Haverford School

Married Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia, June 30, 1905

Awarded two congressional medals of honor, for capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914,

and for capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917

Distinguished service medal, 1919

Retired Oct. 1, 1931

On leave of absence to act as director of Department of Safety, Philadelphia, 1932

Lecturer - 1930's

Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932

Died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940

For more information about Major General Smedley Butler, contact the United States Marine Corps.

Chapter One

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce , their dispute over the Polish Corridor.

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?

Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."

Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.

Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.

Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.

Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.

Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.

But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars.

It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people – who do not profit.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030602211200/

Fascism Accomplished!