I just found out that today is another pro-military holiday: Wreath Laying Day. Wreaths are to be laid on the graves of military dead. I gather this is a wintry alternative to springtime’s Memorial Day (also taken over by the celebration of militarism). So, let’s see: Independence Day has been transformed into July 4th, yet another day to celebrate war. November 11th has been changed from “Armistice Day” (to celebrate the ending of World War I) into “Veterans’ Day,” another opportunity to drag out the war films and trips to cemeteries. Thanksgiving Day provides us with untold numbers of pictures of soldiers in Iraq eating turkey dinners. December 7th: a celebration of how political provocateuring can manipulate an otherwise peaceful American public into a worldwide war frenzy.
Did you know that today, December 11th, is the sixty-first anniversary of the U.S. Navy Air Task Group 1′s first combat mission in the Korean War? On December 12, 1862, the U.S.S. Cairo was sunk by a confederate torpedo on the Yazoo River. If the war-lovers can get out their “U.S.S. Missouri” baseball caps to celebrate Pearl Harbor Day, why not a day for the U.S.S. Cairo? Nor should we forget that, on December 25, 1776 — during the Revolutionary War — George Washington made his famous boat trip crossing the Delaware River, thus upstaging someone’s birthday.
Well, you get the idea. Every day of the year can be singled out for one or another military event that can be used to reinforce the American people’s commitment to war. If the practice was turned into a system of national holidays, it would be a wonderful idea: having all government offices, courts, legislative bodies, administrative agencies, etc., shut down each day to “honor those who sacrificed for us.” Do you think the current herd of war-mongers would buy into the idea? Could they be persuaded that such an idea would provide a daily opportunity to “support the troops”?
