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On This Veterans Day

Tuesday 11 November 2008

by: Camillo "Mac" Bica, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

photo
Veteran James Oliver visits graves of soldiers at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. (Brett Ziegler / The Los Angeles Times)

    Many march to remember, others to forget. But for those who truly know war, no parade is necessary to help us remember, as the memories of war are with us every day of our lives, haunting our existences. Nor does marching in a parade help us put to rest the turmoil of a life interrupted and impacted by war, or forget the dying and the killing. Parades accomplish nothing other than to allow those who make war easily or who ignore completely its reality and horror to feign support and appreciation and to relieve their collective guilt for immoral war. Marching in a parade neither educates nor informs about the realities of war. Rather it celebrates and perpetuates the myth of honor and glory, and "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." I will march no more.

  

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Camillo "Mac" Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His focus is in ethics, particularly as it applies to war and warriors. As a veteran recovering from his experiences as a United States Marine Corps Officer during the Vietnam War, he founded, and coordinated for five years, the Veterans Self-Help Initiative, a therapeutic community of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is a long-time activist for peace and justice, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the coordinator of the Long Island Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Articles by Dr. Bica have appeared in Cyrano's Journal, The Humanist Magazine, Znet, Truthout.org, Common Dreams, AntiWar.com, Monthly Review Zine, Foreign Policy in Focus, OpEdNews.com, AfterDowningStreet.org and numerous philosophical journals.

Comments

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Please translate the latin

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 00:45 β€” alleepa (not verified)
Please translate the latin phrase (Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori). The best I can come up with is "sweet and proper is dying for my father" - I'm sure that's not really correct. Thank you.

You're close. "How sweet and

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 01:15 β€” translation (not verified)
You're close. "How sweet and noble it is to die for one's country." Reference: Wilfred Owen's poem, "Dulce et Decorum est." Owenwas a British foot soldier in WWI. He was killed in battle very close to the end of the war. The theme of his works is the tragic squandering of life and youth for pointless wars.

The most common translation

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 01:29 β€” Donald Rilea (not verified)
The most common translation of the phrase is "Sweet and Proper is it to die for one's Country." However, "Patria", like its Spanish descendant, "Patrie" in French, and their cognate words in other Romance languages literally means "Fatherland". So, I guess, because I really know very little Latin, a closer translation would be "Sweet and Proper is it to die for one's Fatherland." That phrase, at least when rendered into English, sounds rather alien to Anglophone ears and sensibilities, since, as far as I know, there really aren't many, if any, commonly-used English equivalents for "Patria", "Rodina"("Motherland" in Russian), or "Heimat"("Homeland")and "Vaterland"("Fatherland")in German. The use of the phrase "Homeland" as in "Homeland Security" is both new and alien-sounding, at least to Americans, and, given the nature of its users, slightly sinister connotations to those of us opposed to the Bush Administration and its policies. Hope this helped.

I hope more readers will

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 01:46 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I hope more readers will Digg or otherwise share this with the world. Thank you for the truth in this.

It seems to me, that in the

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 03:13 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
It seems to me, that in the last 28 years, at least with the exception of George H.W. Bush, the only leaders willing to commit so easily to war have been the ones most disconnected from it. What we need in this country are more people with Dr. Bicas' experiences sitting down with their sons and daughters and recounting their history in great detail. My father served with the Greek Resistance during the second world war. He never pulled any punches, so to speak, and related to me very vividly his experiences. In high school, I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and sat down regularly with Viet Nam veterans to hear their stories. They inspire me, they horrify me, they instill in me a great respect for the true costs of war. Thank you Dr. Bica for your elegant prose and let's hope that Mr. Obama surrounds himself with the right kinds of people AND listens to them.

To Dr. Bica: I am not a

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 03:13 β€” Another Peasant (not verified)
To Dr. Bica: I am not a veteran of anything except the "War on the American Worker". No military experience whatsoever. -But I always thought the point of Veteran's Day was (or perhaps should be) to recognize the sacrifice that each veteran has made of his or her own life, limb, or even sanity, to save the rest of us from having to do so. You veterans have foregone a normal life so the rest of us could lead one. We know that we can not truly understand what horrors you may have experienced, and for this too, we thank you. It has always seemed to me that it should be a somber, or at least a serious occasion. We do not all "celebrate the myth of honor and glory", Neither do I think a veteran gave me my freedom or liberty. Nature did that. -Nor do I think that there is such a thing as a "good" war. I'll leave that to patrician idiots who think it's like a football game. But I think that perhaps the entire civilian population should use Veteran's Day to reflect on whether or not any given war really needed to happen, and to remind ourselves that it should be the very, very last resort, since it damages and destroys people. I think the point of Veteran's Day should be to say simply: Thank you for your sacrifice. May we be worthy of it.

Thank you Dr. Bica for

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 04:14 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Thank you Dr. Bica for stating the reality.

When they ask why we died,

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 04:21 β€” AKPatriot (not verified)
When they ask why we died, tell them because our Fathers lied. Rudyard Kipling

Dying for ones country is

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 05:35 β€” Otto Schiff (not verified)
Dying for ones country is nothing but a big lie. Wars are the failure of governments and the forces behind them. War is terrible for some and profitable for a few others. The latter are the largest part of the problem. Eisenhower had it right. "Beware of the military, industrial complex."

It is quite telling that

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 07:25 β€” Fr Tothus (not verified)
It is quite telling that Armistice Day, a day that was to celebrate the end of war, in particular, World War One, the "Great War" "the war to end all wars," has become, through the filter of American pro-war propaganda, into a day to honor veterans. May we note that the carnage of World War One hardly resulted in ending war, and the purposeful ignorance of that fact evidenced by the wide-spread lack of comment deploring the change of name and focus speaks volumes about the effectiveness of propaganda in shaping public perceptions. There is nothing noble or honorable about war. "You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead." Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun..."They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." Ernest Hemingway..."You believe you are dying for the fatherland - you die for some industrialists." Anatoly France

When you have a nation that

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 13:28 β€” foxtrottango1 (not verified)
When you have a nation that glorifies war than you have a nation that glorifies violence and the outcome is certain. You will have a nation whose children will pay the consequences in terms of sweat, tears and blood. The bull crap that our children will fight for others "freedom, liberty and justice" is a big lie by government who base it's national and international policies on lies, deception, power and financial gains. Our nation is ruled on the concept of lies, corruption and violence. We have in our systems more young men and women in prisons, more children without health care, more corruption within the political system, a corporate system that violates all rules for their working populance, a fundamental dogma mentality that is totally evil and a hypocrisy and worships money, racism and hatred and a judicial system which supports the corrupted rich and that now support torture regardless of whether they are innocent or guilty. Yes, indeed, " our children are paying the price for the sins of their fathers!" Will the next president make a difference? Ironically, he has a choice just like the outgoing president had to become a great man of history or a warmongering murdering scumbag! The next four years will tell the story.

One writer above noted his

 Wed, 11/12/2008 - 13:49 β€” Peter J. Nickitas (not verified)
One writer above noted his status as a veteran of workers' struggles. His or her comment merits great note. The Haymarket Martyrs were executed on 11 November 1887, exactly 31 years before the end of the so-called War to End All Wars.

So called "primitive"

 Thu, 11/13/2008 - 00:32 β€” Leo (not verified)
So called "primitive" societies have created ritualized combat to settle differences, having arrived, generations before, on an accord concerning the rules of the game. In all cases, the object is to make the mock combat such that individuals confront one another directly, and only warriors may participate. But in our advanced society, we make a virtue out of inflicting the most harm in the least personal way, preferably from afar, and ultimately care little who gets hurt as "collateral damage." As long as we 95% chimpanzees love fighting so much, couldn't that the next half step up the evolutionary ladder and at least ritualize war to the point where the innocent are spared?

War is the handmaiden of

 Thu, 11/13/2008 - 14:16 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
War is the handmaiden of politics, and politics is the faithful handmaiden of economics. Without profound changes in the economy, there will not be nor can there be profound changes in politics. War will always be a threat as long as a system that guarantees wealth for the few at the expense of the many is allowed to exist. We have entered a period in history where the masses must decide which way to go: a system based on private property that has created unimaginable abundance on the one hand and untold poverty and misery on the other, or a system that provides for the needs of humanity whether they can or cannot pay. As technology advances, robots are replacing humans, producing more than markets can absorb (workers who can't produce also cannot consume), and the push to war increases as corporations scramble to maintain profitability. This current war has drained our country of $570 billion. We the People must decide which way to go. Do we allow the corporations to control the world or do WE? For articles on the struggles of workers and unemployed and what they are doing about their plight, go to www.peoplestribune.org.