Veterans Day

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan got put on the back burner by the media during the run-up to the election, so this year's Veterans Day marks a refocusing of sorts. Our troops are still doing some very difficult jobs overseas, after all - financial woes simply can't compare. As always, I'd like to wish them good luck and Godspeed during these troubled times.

It's interesting to note that Veterans Day isn't just a U.S. holiday - on November 11th, countries all over the world celebrate the end of the first World War and remember the 20 million people who died as a result of the fighting. It's called Armistice Day, since the signing of the peace treaty famously came on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."

20 million doesn't sound like much in a world with more than six billion people on it, but it's best to put it in perspective. For thousands of years in prehistoric times, there weren't even 20 million human beings living on the entire planet. The great irony of war is that it's a brutal, senseless luxury that can only be afforded by successful species.