At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent.

Armistice Day 2019

We gather to commemorate the peace that descended on that historic day in 1918, at the cessation of the war to end all wars.

The world was filled with revulsion at the senseless death, destruction, and horrors of war, the infliction of wounds that scarred combatants and the very conciousness of those living in that terrible time.  Countries came together to resist war, an effort that culminated in the kellogg-briand pact of 1928, a treaty that the US signed and which is still in effect.  It was intended to abolish war as an instrument of national policy, a policy that now forms one of the tenets of the Veterans For Peace statement of purpose.  Wars in which we have engaged since that time have in fact been in violation of that historic agreement.

At Veterans For Peace, we honor veterans every day by seeking justice for veterans and victims of war.  On this day, we choose to commemorate the armistice that marked the beginning of peace in 1918 since we feel that the best way to honor veterans is to create a peaceful world that obviates the need to create yet more veterans of war.

Veterans are often thanked for our service.  For those who have the impulse to thank a veteran, please do so and please then follow that impulse to its logical conclusion by working steadfastly for peace.  If you want to thank us for defending freedoms, please help us seek a permanent and lasting peace that will help assure all the worlds people their measure of freedom.

Young people are often motivated to enlist to help correct injustice and bring peace to the people in the countries in which we serve.  Yet we have been deeply saddened and woefully disheartened when we discover that the sacrifices we gave, the blood we spilled, the horrors we witnessed, the wounds we suffered, physical, spiritual, psychological, or moral, that affect us for the remainder of our lives, were in the end in the service of more war, endless, permanent war.

For we see the clear truth that war only begets more war, that if we want peace, we must find ways to wage peace instead of war; we must keep our focus on the peace to come not on wars of the past.

Some may consider me naive to think that my suggestion to seek peace in the face of seemingly intractible conflict is folly.  But I ask you which is more naive:  the suggestion that peace must be sought in a vigorous and ongoing way or the suggestion that the only solution to the threat of war is more war, that the only way to achieve peace is by waging war?

What is more naive than thinking that perpetrating war will lead to peace and harmony, that perpetrating war will result in anything more than more death and destruction and distrust and disharmony?  That perpetrating war will lead to anything other than the yoking of our young people to serving in the catastrophe of military adventures instead of pursuing justice and harmony and meaningful, peaceful existence?

I understand that the visceral response to violence is often an impulse to wreak violence in return.  But that atavistic impulse only leads to increasing, often escalating violence, and the concept of peace is trampled in the headlong rush towards violent retribution.

The United States is very fortunate not to have been the site of a major war since the U.S. Civil War in the mid-19th Century.  Except for our veterans, we have no memory of the horror, the death, the terror, the destruction, the deprivation, the misery and despair that characterizes all war.  As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said:  War is always a human catastrophe.  If we keep that in mind, then when anyone calls for war, we must always understand that they are calling for the imposition of human catastrophe, not only on the purported enemy but also on ourseslves.

Those of us who served in vietnam remember that the reason we were given for engaging in that war was to keep vietnam from becoming unified under a communist government.  And now, 45 years later we see that vietnam is indeed unified, under a communist government.  So what did our sacrifice accomplish?

We were told that we must invade afghanistan to rout the taliban and prevent safe havens for al-qaeda.  Now, we see that our government is negotiating with the taliban to return them to a share of power there,18  years later.  Three presidents have expressed the desire to bring our troops home, to end the longest war in our nation's history.  What has the sacrifice of our troops, or the sacrifice of the people of the middle east accomplished?

What did either of these wars achieve, other than killing and destruction, in ballooning expeditures of blood and treasure to pursue war ends, to spend countless trillions that starve programs that could help address the problems of poverty, of environmental destruction, of the driving of millions of people from their homes into the ongoing misery, fear, despair and insecurity of refugee status?

Peace is not easy to achieve and maintain, but it is the only condition to pursue that could result in hope for a world that is literally sick to death of war.

At an armistice day commemoration a few years ago, an older man asked me what we were doing.  When I said we were reading the names of the US troops killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and were working to end involvement in these senseless, permanent wars, he asked, “do you mean to say that our troops killed there, died in vain?”

I responded that I certainly hoped not, but could have elaborated to say, “no, our troops have not died in vain, only if their sacrifice helps us realize that war does not bring peace, or justice or freedom, but only chains us to the perpetual bondage that results in the burying or scarring of our young men and women whose idealism motivates them to serve but results in binding them to the cruel master of war.  If their sacrifice finally helps us see that the vigorous and relentless pursuit of peace is the only way, then that sacrifice will not have been in vain.”

Today we do not march in celebration of militarism, but will move toward the expanding pursuit of a peaceful world.

We believe that peace is possible, if all those who treasure it join us to work for its realization, and that when you want to thank us for our service, you do so because you want to join us in finding ways to perpetuate not the clamor of war but the blessed silence of the guns.