memorial day musing

Well it's memorial day in the US of A. The only thoughts circulating through my mind about the rah rah-we're the almighty power-holiday are of my deceased grandfather. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in World War 2. As far as I'm concerned it was the last war worth getting involved in. Fascism needed to be stopped, and the time was right to send a message to everyone that the horrific slaughter of million upon million of innocents would not be tolerated or acceptable in the modern world. The rest of Europe needed help and it was great to see things turned out in a decent way. France and England were saved and excluding the cold war everything turned out pretty okay.

Back to my grandfather though. He used to speak of his accounts over there as if of a fairytale. He took all the dehumanizing and awful details out as recounting his time overseas to myself and my older brother; and his sons and daughters as well. It may have been to decrease the strain of war and the pity on what he had to go through for the rest of the family, but everybody knew what really went on. It was cold. It was War. It was hell. Yet, through staying positive he was able to take his pain away. It was something he had to do. Fighting for the ultimate cause was legitimate excuse to enlist for him. To this day, I can only imagine seeing through his eyes. What horrors were seen first hand? How did he survive?

The pain of war is something nobody should go through. I remain strictly anti-war on all accounts. The only thing I can ever hope for is that the military will not be deployed to a foreign land to do whatever some Chickenhawk tells it to do. The true meaning of memorial day is to respect those who fought for reasonable causes and to try to ensure that nobody will ever have to suffer like the ones who fought in the first and second world wars. Like it's been written- "Fight war, not wars"

Happy memorial day. Send them home.