RECLAIM ARMISTICE DAY1918–2018 TM Published by Veterans For Peace TM A Peace to End All Wars By David Swanson ovember 11 is Armistice Day/Remembrance Day. One hundred years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th Nday of the 11th month of 1918, fighting ceased in the “war to end all wars.” People went on killing and dying right up until the pre-designated moment, impacting noth- ing other than our understanding of the stupidity of war. Thirty million soldiers had been killed or wounded and another seven million had been taken captive during World War I. Even more would die from a flu epidemic created by the war. Never before had people witnessed Thirty million soldiers had been killed or wounded and another seven million had been taken captive during World War I. Even more would die from a flu epidemic created by the war. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter, with tens SOLDIERS CELEBRATE the news of the Armistice. United States wanted to see no more of war ever again. Mass slaughter and war-created famines and disease of thousands falling in a day to Posters of Jesus shooting at Germans were left behind, epidemics have now become almost routine, but we don’t as the churches, along with everyone else, now said that have to stand for it. World Beyond War is organizing machine guns and poison gas. war was wrong. Al Jolson wrote in 1920 to President events all over the world on November 11, 2018. So is Harding: Veterans For Peace. So is Women’s International League such industrialized slaughter, with tens of thousands The weary world is waiting for for Peace and Freedom. And RootsAction.org and many falling in a day to machine guns and poison gas. Af- Peace forevermore other organizations. ter the war, more and more truth began to overtake the So take away the gun Believe it or not, November 11 was not made a holi- lies, but whether people still believed or now resented From every mother’s son day in order to celebrate war, support troops, cheer the the pro-war propaganda, virtually every person in the And put an end to war. 17th year of occupying Afghanistan, thank anybody for a supposed “service,” or make America great again. This day was made a holiday in order to celebrate an armi- stice that ended what was, up until that point in 1918, one of the worst things our species had thus far done to itself, namely World War I. World War I, then known simply as the World War or the Great War, had been marketed as a war to end war. Celebrating its end was also understood as celebrating the end of all wars. A 10-year campaign was launched in 1918 that in 1928 created the Kellogg-Briand Pact, le- gally banning all wars. That treaty is still on the books, which is why war-making is a criminal act and how Nazis came to be prosecuted for it. “[O]n November 11, 1918, there ended the most un- necessary, the most financially exhausting, and the most terribly fatal of all the wars that the world has ever known. Twenty millions of men and women, in that war, were killed outright, or died later from wounds. The Spanish influenza, admittedly caused by the War and nothing else, killed, in various lands, one hundred million persons more.”—Thomas Hall Shastid, 1927 ALLIED OFFICERS CELEBRATE at a captured German canteen. continued on page 14 … Reclaim Armistice Day By Tarak Kauff Why, after 64 years of being replaced by “Veterans Day,” are veterans still pushing for Armistice Day (as opposed to Veterans Day) to be reinstated as a federal holiday on November 11th? Armistice Day was first observed in 1920 with parades and public gatherings celebrating the peace that came two years earlier while solemnly remembering those millions who perished during that war. Six years later, Congress passed a resolution that the “recurring anniversary of November 11, 1918, should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exer- cises designed to perpetuate peace between nations.” It took 12 more years, but finally, on May 13, 1938, No- BRITISH AND GERMAN WOUNDED, Bernafay Wood, July 18, 1916. Photo: Ernest Brooks. vember 11 became a legal federal holiday, “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and power deepened the divide between countries such as Technology brought in new and ever more destructive and known as Armistice Day.” Britain and Germany and strengthened alliances between weaponry, hence a huge increase in military power by Armistice Day as a day “dedicated to the cause of other countries such as Great Britain, France, and Russia. many of the European countries, along with the willing- world peace” lasted only 16 years. In 1954, in the wake By the beginning of WWI, Great Britain controlled ness to use this military power to promote their interests. of the Korean War, the powers that be thought it more close to one-quarter of the world and was looking to in- New technology and industrially enhanced militarism fitting to honor the living veterans and glorify their sac- crease its holdings. British nationalism and pride was would be a primary feature of WWI. rifice for country. Armistice Day was renamed Veterans expressed and fortified by the idea that “the sun never This “advance” in technology led to carnage the likes Day in 1954, changing the essence of the holiday from sets on the British Empire.” Nationalism and a warped of which had never before been witnessed. New weapons one dedicated to peace to one celebrating and honoring patriotism fueled imperialism, as did the need for raw included moveable machine guns, chlorine gas, flame patriotism, the warriors, and the wars. materials and cheap labor to increase market capitalism throwers, zeppelins, planes, and torpedoes. Submarines, World War I was both horrific and unnecessary, an ex- and profit. Germany, which had become a military super tanks, and planes reached new levels of destructive ca- ercise in imperialism by England, France, Russia, the power by the early 1900s, wanted to create an empire pacity. United States, and Germany that cost an estimated 40 that would rival Britain’s. When the war ended on November 11, 1918, the com- million casualties, with some 15 to 19 million deaths and In the decades leading up to World War I, countries in mon people of the world, including war weary soldiers, about 23 million wounded military personnel. The 1918 Europe had formed mutual defense alliances. If not for who gained nothing, but as always lost much, rejoiced. flu pandemic, occuring while prisoners of war were still these alliances, WWI might have remained a minor con- This was the “war to end all wars”—or so the world held, caused about one third of total military deaths for flict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. hoped. all belligerents. In 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Her- Veterans, many of whom have seen the futility and in- humanity of war and militarism, do not want wars for empire and profit, nor do we need to be glorified, hon- ’Lots of our fellow citizens won’t know the difference between Armistice Day ored, or put on pedestals for killing or being prepared to kill. and a good mattress sale on Veterans Day. Many won’t know how Armistice Former Veterans For Peace President Mike Ferner, a Day came to be called something else. Even most military veterans themselves Navy Corpsman during Vietnam, said, “Lots of our fel- low citizens won’t know the difference between Armi- will not understand the difference. Most churches won’t think to ring bells on stice Day and a good mattress sale on Veterans Day. Many won’t know how Armistice Day came to be called 11/11 at 11:00 am. But if nothing else on this day, just look at the pictures, something else. Even most military veterans themselves read just one poem by Wilfred Owen, then for just five minutes be quiet and will not understand the difference. Most churches won’t think to ring bells on 11/11 at 11:00 am. But if nothing else imagine peace. That’s the least and maybe the most you can do on the 100th on this day, just look at the pictures, read just one poem by Wilfred Owen, then for just five minutes be quiet and anniversary of Armistice Day.’—Mike Ferner imagine peace. That’s the least and maybe the most you can do on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. You’ll be touched deeply and ultimately glad that you did.” Many of the wounded were horribly disfigured for life. zegovina, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire. Years What we veterans really need is for society to reclaim When the war ended, unfortunately and mistakenly of deep animosity between Austria-Hungary, Serbia, the spirit of Armistice Day and unite in the common de- called the “War to End All Wars,” which it was not, peo- and the Slavic peoples followed. In 1908, Austria-Hun- sire of the human spirit for peace. ple all over the world both rejoiced at the arrival of peace gary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, officially making Former Army paratrooper Tarak Kauff is the man- after such massive bloodshed and grieved for many years them part of its empire. Tensions increased. aging editor of the Veterans For Peace quarterly news- for those sons, daughters, fathers and mothers needlessly The event that actually triggered the war was the as- paper Peace in Our Times and a former member of the sacrificed.