It takes more courage to say no than it does to fight

Today was the day on the calendar when World War I -- the war people called the war to end wars -- ended -- November 11th at 11:11 a.m. was when the armistice was signed. Goofy numbers like that used to matter. I'm not sure why.

WWI veteran

For years after the war, November 11th was known as Armistice Day. In Great Britain and the rest of the British Empire, it was known as Remembrance Day.

Back in the '70s, the celebration in this country was shifted to the fourth Monday in October as part of the plan to make more holidays three-day weekends. That lasted only seven years; the date of November 11th had a totemic quality to those who really cared about it, so we returned to 11/11 in 1978.

My grandfather served in World War I, my father and my mother's brother served in WWII. I would have been proud to serve with them, but I can't think of one war since then that was worth the cost, either in treasure or in dead soldiers. It sounds ridiculous now, but in the '50s and '60s, people actually used to believe that if we didn't fight the Commies in Vietnam, eventually we would be fighting them in California.

Dominoes.

I always thought it was a boring game.

Of course we all know now what it was really about. As Country Joe McDonald said, there was plenty of good money to be made supplying the Army with the tools of the trade.

When we were done there, 58,000 American boys were dead and the Communists ruled all of Vietnam. Of course, the war machine had made billions in profits.

58,000 names on the wall ...

And they never really stopped. When the Soviet Union fell, leaving us without a real enemy in the world, some of us thought there might be a peace dividend and we could stop spending so much on guns and bombs.

Were we really that naive? We spend more than double what we spent in 1989, and a lot of it is going to keeping our own people in line.

The real scandal of it is that for all the money we spend on the military, our soldiers and sailors are worse off than ever. They no longer have a full G.I. bill, and thousands of enlisted personnel make so little that they qualify for food stamps.

When America was gearing up for World War II, President Roosevelt had some strong words for the people who were going to make the weapons. FDR said he didn't want to see any new millionaires created because of the war.

Now we create billionaires.

And we fight wars that never end. We have been in Afghanistan for 12 years and have accomplished virtually nothing other than losing more and more young Americans.

It really is time to start saying no. Republicans take us to war and Democrats stand with them because they're afraid of being called cowards. Well, it takes a lot more courage to stand for the right thing against the crowd.

It's time to stand in the gap and tell soldiers that if they won't fight, they won't die. It's time to tell them that if they really want to save our country, the work to be done is here at home.