Most of us are not students of war and yet we know war is with us, has always been with us, will most likely always be with us. We become inured and desensitized to the fact go on about our business as though everything was hunky dory. Most of us don't fight in wars nor are we anywhere near them. This is a large and unfair advantage over those who do.

My daughter, a Command Sergeant Major in the United States Army is back in Afghanistan for the second or third time. She's been to Iraq twice. During her first tour of Iraq we began trading emails on a very irregular basis. Once I asked something about 'how's it going?' and she responded a few days later by answering that the previous night had been...
'rather quiet, we had a 21st birthday party for one of my youngest soldiers and things were good.'

'This morning,' she went on,' I shipped him home in a body bag. That's how my day goes Dad. Love you.'

This is what we ask of soldiers when we, the older generation send the young ones to do our unpleasant work for us. This is the way it's always been I suppose. We old timers decide to send our children into the hellish flames of war because we can't come up with a better solution to the problems we face or the problems we've created. Certainly war is inevitable in some cases. And this protective warrior discipline has made great strides in the ability to kill more people and do more destruction in less time than ever before. At the same time it seems to me humanity has made little progress in the art of peace making and the avoidance or minimalization of war. I could be wrong but perhaps peace makes us uneasy. Perhaps the powerful can make more money in a shorter period of time in war than they can in peace. In any case eight years of war and counting and with the most sophisticated technology in the history of mankind and we're not through yet.

This November on Veteran's Day let's not forget our veterans. Especially in this time of war they need to be first and foremost on our minds every day. They are the ones that have always gone into battle for us for whatever cause we've decided upon and laid their lives, their bodies, their souls, their futures on the line so that the rest of us don't have see or participate in this gritty and distasteful business of war. We can in no way make up for their lost innocence, their lost limbs, their blinded eyes, their war torn families, the horrors of war that will forever callous their lives. It's only right that they should be given every opportunity, every courtesy, every benefit this nation can provide to, in part, compensate for the sacrifices they have made.  If we can't do that and do it honorably with pride and humility the next war ought to be fought by the old geezers who propose it.

Maybe then they might discover more peaceable ways to settle our differences.
I thank you veterans, all of you. From the bottom of my heart.