An affront to Veterans' Day.... Mr. Bush bangs the drums of war, again.

[pinto]

Armistice Day was always meant as a poignant and somber recognition of the human costs of war and commemorates the moment arms were layed down in Europe after World War I...

Mr. Bush, today, said that his "war on terror" was the "first war of the twenty-first century". That's a pretty sad claim to fame...and a really inappropriate day to tout it.

about Veterans' Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 , in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles , France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918 , is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

the heartbreaking song by Eric Bogle...

"Willy McBride"
by Eric Bogle

Well how do you do Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, Lord and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the great fallen of 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down ?
and did the band play the last post and chorus ?
And did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916, to that loyal heart are you forever 19.
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined there forever behind a glass pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and
stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

(Chorus)
------

The sun's shining now on the green Fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plough
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land
And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

(Chorus)
------

And I can't help but wonder young Willie McBride
Do all who lie here with you know why they died
Did you really believe it when they told you the cause
Did you honestly think that one war would end wars
Well your suffering, your sorrow, your glory, your shame
Your killing, your dying, it was all done in vain..........
'Cos young Willie McBride it all happened again, and again, and again, and again and again.

-------------------------------------------------------------

(background on Eric Bogle)

Scottish born but a naturalized citizen of Australia, ERIC BOGLE has been called by critics "The best songwriter of the day" and "one of the most important songwriters of the decade". Eric might pass off such high praise with a laugh, but the record (both literally and figuratively speaking) shows that this chubby little Scotsman from Peebles has given the world some of its most powerful protest songs. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda written in 1972 has become Australia s most recorded song with performers as diverse as Rod McKuen and The Pogues performing it It also became the largest selling single in Irish history as recorded by Makem and Clancey.

It is the writing of songs such as "....Matilda", A Reason for It All and The Greenfields of France (No Man's Land or Willy McBride) which prompted the Australian government to present Eric with the Australian Peace Award to commemorate the International Year of Peace in 1986. In 1987 the government honored Eric with the Order of Australia for his contributions to that country's music and musical heritage.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The original document of the Geneva Convention addressing chemical weapons, rising out of their use in WWI.

Primary Documents: Geneva Protocol, 17 June 1925
Updated - Sunday, 19 May, 2001

With the Allies emerging victorious from World War One there was a desire to reaffirm the pre-war principles forbidding the use of chemical weapons during wartime, although provisions existed in the Versailles Treaty banning Germany from either manufacturing or importing such weapons.

The U.S. took the lead at the Washington Disarmament Conference in 1922 in proposing a treaty governing the use of submarines and noxious gases. While the Senate passed the treaty without a dissenting vote the French government objected to its submarine provisions. The treaty thus never entered into force (French ratification being necessary).

Once again at the 1925 Geneva Conference for the Supervision of the International Traffic in Arms the U.S. government took an active stance in seeking to prohibit the export of gases for use in war. France suggested that a protocol be drawn up on non-use of poisonous gases; at Poland's suggestion the prohibition was extended to bacteriological weapons.

The protocol was signed on 17 June 1925. In the years prior to World War Two most major powers ratified the protocol, except the U.S. and Japan. The British reserved the right to waive the protocol if in time of war their enemies were to disregarded the terms of the agreement.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare

Opened for signature: 17 June 1925, entered into force: 8 February 1928

The undersigned Plenipotentiaries, in the name of their respective governments:

Whereas the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices, has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilised world; and

Whereas the prohibition of such use has been declared in Treaties to which the majority of Powers of the world are Parties; and

To the end that this prohibition shall be universally accepted as a part of International Law, binding alike the conscience and the practice of nations;

Declare:

That the High Contracting Parties, so far as they are not already Parties to Treaties prohibiting such use, accept this prohibition, agree to extend this prohibition to the use of bacteriological methods of warfare and agree to be bound as between themselves according to the terms of this declaration.

The High Contracting Parties will exert every effort to induce other States to accede to the present Protocol. Such accession will be notified to the Government of the French Republic, and by the latter to all signatories and acceding Powers, and will take effect on the date of the notification by the Government of the French Republic

The present Protocol, of which the English and French texts are both authentic, shall be ratified as soon as possible. It shall bear to-day's date.

The ratifications of the present Protocol shall be addressed to the Government of the French Republic, which will at once notify the deposit of such ratification to each of the signatory and acceding Powers.

The instruments of ratification of and accession to the present Protocol will remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic.

The present Protocol will come into force for each signatory Power as from the date of deposit of its ratification, and, from that moment, each Power will be bound as regards other Powers which have already deposited their ratifications.

In witness whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Protocol.

Done at Geneva in a single copy, the seventeenth day of June, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-Five.