Few know that the civilian combatant fatality ratio during World War II was somewhere between 60-70%; or that nearly a third of the entire Cambodian population was wiped out at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 to 1979; or that more than 3000 tons of explosives were dropped during the firebombing of Dresden, which occurred over the course of two straight days and which incinerated tens of thousands of innocent people. These were real lives lost, real families destroyed, and real hopes and dreams that were decimated. The truth is that these few examples don’t even scratch the surface of what the destructive nature of war amounts to. It’s the legacy of the intolerable rulers we reside under. So at what point do we call a spade a spade? War, as Randolph Bourne put it, is the health of the state, so why not take the State off life support once and for all?
In the wise words of Dr. Robert Higgs:
“Memorial Day is a day to remember the tragedy of war, a tragedy that affects everyone participating in or touched by it, regardless of which side “wins,” and to dedicate ourselves to doing whatever we can to prevent the recurrence of this tragedy.