At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918, the Armistice was signed, ending the War To End All Wars - what is now known as World War I. It and World War II we wars against oppression and the mad men that would dictate to free men everywhere how they would live, what they would believe and who they could associate with.
Remembrance Day, 2004 will be remembered, not for the rights and privileges being fought for, but for the utter disregard for those rights and the contempt that the government of the United States holds them. The current rally cry for the troops deployed to fight in Iraq is that they are fighting for our freedom. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The troops in Iraq do deserve our support and our thoughts and prayers this day because they are fighting in a conflict without merit, direction or cause. They will be returning to a nation with fewer protected rights than the one the left not a year ago and will have little to show, except their wounds and the scars of battle. At least those who return will.
This is not a battle for high ideals or to preserve a way of life. This is the enforcement of a belief system on a nation that belives something completely different. Saddam Hussein, while a terror to his people and an occasional thorn in the side of United States policy in the region was not a world leader that could inspire millions to do his bidding. He had neither the technical infrastructure, the military grasp nor the economic standing needed to plunge the world into another global conflict. That took a superpower and we are at the brink of such a plunge. This plunge however is off a much more rugged cliff. This plunge will take with it not only soldiers lives, but the lives of the supporters back home as they watch their economy, international standing and moral values go with it.
On this Remembrance Day I leave you with these thoughts:
1) Remember those who have died to protect your freedoms. You can do nothing less.
2) Remember those who have died to protect you - not just the soldiers, but the first responders and other volunteers who DAILY put their lives on the line.
3) Remember those who are putting their lives in jeopardy for no reason other than their Commander-in-Chief ordered them there.
Finally, I leave you with the poem that sums up Remembrance Day. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Lest we forget, lest we forget...
10:05:58 AM 
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