Honor the ‘war to end all wars’

My grandfather, a World War I veteran, always got grumpy on Nov. 11. “It’s not Veterans Day,” he barked, “it’s Armistice Day! The damned politicians changed it to Veterans Day. And they kept getting us into more wars. Buncha crooks! They don’t fight the wars, ya know. Guys like me fight the wars. They called it ‘the war to end all wars,’ and we believed it!”

The armistice had been signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, but Private Russell Messner was one of the unlucky Doughboys who had to remain six months longer in northern Russia as part of a counterrevolutionary U.S.-British force that tried and failed to defeat the Soviet Red Army. In the years following his return home, Armistice Day symbolized to Gramps not just the end of his war, but the end of all war, the dawning of a lasting peace.

This was not an idle dream. In fact, a mass movement for peace had pressed the U.S. government, in 1928, to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international “Treaty for the Renunciation of War,” sponsored by the United States and France and subsequently signed by most nations of the world. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law changing the name of the holiday to Veterans Day, to include veterans of World War II, it was a slap in the face for my grandfather. Hope evaporated, replaced with the ugly reality that politicians would continue to find reasons to send American boys — “guys like me” — to fight and die in wars.

I can guess what my grandfather would think about our current commander-in-chief, a notorious draft-dodger who uses the U.S. military to terrorize American cities and bomb small boats off the coasts of South America, as he threatens war with Venezuela and Nigeria and calls for the resumption of nuclear weapons testing. Meanwhile, his administration is slashing jobs, and ultimately care, at the Veterans Administration.

We can honor our veterans by supporting our current vets with excellent medical care. And we can reclaim the original meaning of Armistice Day by aligning with organizations like Veterans for Peace and About Face to oppose resurgent militarism, as we build sustainable peace in our community and our world.