This day in 1918 marked the end of the War to End All Wars. Less than a handful of veterans of that war remain to be honored. But where there are people, there will be wars; where there are wars, there will be veterans; and where there are veterans, they deserve honor and respect. In any conflict there will be some, to be sure, who serve dishonorably, for their own gain, with evil intent, or with twisted logic, as recent events attest. The hanging scene in Shakespeare's Henry V is intense, and shocking to our modern sensibilities, but makes the point that in a civilized society wrongdoing in members of the armed forces is even more offensive than civilian crimes.
Horrendous exceptions to the contrary, soldiers and sailors, be they enemy or ally, are standing "between their loved home and the war's desolation." As J. R. R. Tolkien reminds us in The Return of the King: "It must often be so ... when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them."
Thank you, veterans and current members of our Armed Forces.
