Signs were posted everywhere here in Denver over the preceding several weeks about the 3pm moment of silence yesterday to reflect on the meaning behind Memorial Day (née Decoration Day). On busses, on street poles, on lights, on the ground–wherever. Just remind people that the US has lost a lot of blood all over the world. Bush would have us believe every single drop of blood was shed willingly by men and women fighting for the cause of freedom and liberty and all that good stuff that makes for good soundbites.

I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
– George McGovern

I won’t deny that some wars have been fought for the purposes of keeping America safe. WWII would have undoubtedly spilled from the European theatre to the shores of America, eventually, if not by men wearing grey uniforms with swastikas on the sleeve, then later on by others in brown uniforms who spoke Russian.

We’ve lost almost 3,500 people in Iraq. Almost 25,000 more have been injured. Some of those soldiers returning from Iraq (often with missing limbs, since it’s next to impossible to leave the military at this point in time, what with all the stop-loss programs extending tours of duty from 1 year to 30+ years) have said that they wouldn’t have signed up to begin with if they had been told the truth as to why we, as a country, were there to begin with.

Countless dead, innocent people (called collateral damage by heartless people who wear $3,000 suits to work) are our fault, as a country. The number of those dead, innocent people is shady at best, since our government doesn’t count them accurately, and their government has our hand so deep in its puppet-hole that they wouldn’t count them either. Those dead innocent people, the thousands of dead, misled soldiers of ours, and the tens of thousands of injured soldiers need a memorial day.

And what better tribute than to stop killing them?