By Barb Hauge
As we revisit the beaches of Normandy and watch the men gunned down, falling, dying and drowning, I think of all the wars throughout history that have murdered so many millions. If black monoliths containing the names of the murdered were installed throughout Washington D.C., they would dwarf the Vietnam Memorial and would cover every available space in our Nations Capitol and beyond. On each of the multitude of islands in the Pacific recaptured from the Japs, far more men were murdered than were lost on D-Day or than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. I know. My young husband, Frank, was among the fifty thousand plus killed on Okinawa Island. His brother, Lee, was one of the fly-boys shot down over Germany and captured by the Krauts. Don't expect me to assign nice names to Japs or Krauts. They were not nice people. But then war brings out the worst in all of us.
Lee said that as a tail-gunner on a B-29 Bomber, he was one of the lucky ones. Captured pilots ended up in Never-Never Land (Russia) where they were stripped of what knowledge they possessed and assassinated. A deal was cut wherein U. S. Government/Military agreed to forget the fly-boys in return for a few of the Germans' top rocket scientists.
Frank was highly intellectual and excelled at math and science. He was Salutatorian of Chinook High graduating class of 1941. On graduation day he spoke, "We have not wings; we cannot soar, but we have minds to scale and climb by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time." But in place of scaling the summits of civilized culture and knowledge, he was hurled into war and death.
My advice to young men is: If you don't want a D-Day in your life, don't register with the Selective Service. S. S. for males is probably unconstitutional anyhow since females are not required to register. The U. S. military is a lying, conniving shill that will con you into a hellish existence and a brutal death. If you should survive the war, America's good old Screw-The-Veterans Administration will make damn sure you never receive the health care or the benefits you have earned. VA never heard those important words, "Vets deserve the best we can give them. We owe them that!"
War is a hideous game designed by those who make billions off all the profits created when the governments are forced to "build it up, blow it up and buy some more." These warmongering money-men finance mad men to power like Hitler and Saddam so the world will go to war.
The place to prevent war is the same place where all problems are prevented: At the source! Slap stiff regulations and penalties on international bankers, munition makers and manufacturers of all war materials and monitor them closely and honestly. Yea, do the NRA unthinkable; control guns and bombs and nukes. And, while we're at it, control population which is another problem which must be controlled at the source! The human race would not have to kill off so many people if we'd stop making too many people. We cannot continue to screw ourselves out of a place at the table and out of a space on planet Earth.
General Eisenhower said it, "We must work for eternal peace!" Limit population! Outlaw war!
