Today the United States observes Veterans Day. Tomorrow, November 11th, is the 90th anniversary of the day, once was known as Armistice Day, that marked the 1918 armistice that ended the fighting on the western front in what was then known as The Great War, now called World War I.

I am reposting my blog from last year as it states my feelings better than anything else I can think of and as the fatalities from Iraq and Afghanistan have declined we are in danger of losing sight of the tragedy and cost of war.

The generation that survived that conflict has passed away and the children of that generation, who survive today, few in number, mostly remember the great depression and World War II.

I am a child of that latter generation and I am distressed by how much we have forgot the lessons learned eighty-nine years ago. The Great War was the last gasp of the hereditary rulers of Europe. Whether they be Kaiser, Czar, King or Emperor they ruled divinely and considered war to be an instrument of foreign policy. To the fifteen million casualties of World War I, war was not a solution.

The sacrifice made by the men and women who are the causalities of that or any war while admirable are senseless and wasteful. We still haven't learned that lesson.