Memorial Day means different things to different people. For some, it’s attending a military parade or visiting a cemetery or grilling burgers or going to the beach.
As a U.S. Navy veteran, on this solemn day, I will be remembering all those who have “fallen” in America’s wars. Moreover, I will honor those who have had their lives taken from them while being sent overseas to participate in illegal, immoral or unjust actions.
Gene Glazer, a World War II medic and a member of Veterans for Peace, as I am, once said, “We have a responsibility to educate the public on the human cost of war, the lives shattered, broken, and lost. We stand as witnesses to this terrible cost and we say to our fellow citizens there is a better way. Join us as we walk the path of peace.”
WW II General Omar Bradley stated that “It is easy for those of us who are living to honor the sacrifices of those who are dead. For it helps to assuage the guilt we should feel in their presence. Wars can be prevented as surely as they can be provoked, and therefore we who fail to prevent them share in guilt for the dead.”
While we mourn our dead, who pauses to remember the innocent civilians, especially children, whose lives were also taken during our military actions? Remembering Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq (twice) and now Iran. I recall a friend’s quote that reads “Memorial Day is a day when the horrors of war are wrapped in flags to justify them.” I concur, and also agree with former member of the British Parliament Tony Benn who said, “All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”
If one looks post-World War II, there really hasn’t been a single war or conflict that was about protecting our freedoms. Lest we forget, we have a Constitution that protects our freedoms though we have a president and Congress and Supreme Court that seem intent on curtailing some of those freedoms.
In 2026, as we commemorate Memorial Day, we also note that war and preparation for war has resulted in enormous profits to the weapons makers and their political allies. Does it matter to these war profiteers as to which side wins or loses? Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” starts with “Come you masters of war, You that build the big guns … You that build all the bombs…” Dylan exposes the war profiteers who manufacture weapons but who never wear the uniform and are never held accountable for millions of deaths, ours and others, including innocent civilians.
World War II veteran Professor Howard Zinn once said, “Memorial Day will be celebrated by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers from future wars. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.”
In the 21st century, the U.S. has been involved in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Balkans, Yemen, Somalia and now in Iran. Who has gained the most? It is firms such as Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, RTX (formerly Raytheon), L3Harris, Boeing, General Dynamics and BAE Systems. They and their shareholders have profited immensely from wars and for preparing for future ones. They and politicians often remind us that “freedom isn’t free” and that some heroic Americans paid the price. If the dead could talk, they would deny that as almost all wars are based on lies. Those would include the Spanish-American War, World War I, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, even Iran today.
William Hartung and Ben Freeman’s recent book, “The Trillion Dollar War Machine” exposes the perfidy of our War Department as it details the profligate spending of this unaudited entity. And, in 2026, the 47th president has asked for a new war budget of $1.5 trillion!
Yes, let us honor our dead on Memorial Day, but also reflect on the millions who have died in many countries as a result of U.S. military actions. According to an examination by the Cost of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, US-led wars since 2001 have directly caused the deaths of some 940,000 people across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other post-9/11 conflict zones, but not yet counting Iran.
Isn’t it time to wage peace and to stop erecting memorials to war?
Will Thomas is a retired high school history teacher and a member of New Hampshire Veterans for Peace living in Manchester.