November 11

I have generally avoided saying anything about Veterans' Day, not because I don't recognize what people who have served in the military have done, but because I believe, generally, that most wars represent a failure of the political leadership of the nations involved.  And because of the very real human cost of those wars.  We tend to remember the cost to people in our own countries, but to forget--or ignore--the costs--deaths, injuries, destruction--suffered by people in other countries.  Even other countries that were on the wrong side of the war (Germany in World War II).  Here's the casualty data for America's largest wars; note that the Indian wars are not included, and we have no estimates of native American deaths/casualties in those.

War	Deaths	Wounded	Deaths per      100,000 Population	Casualties    per 100,000 population
American Revolutionary War	25,000	25,000	1,000	2,000
War of 1812	15,000	4,500	188	244
Mexican–American War	13,283	4,200	62	82
American Civil War	625,000	500,000	1,988	3,578
Philippine–American War	4,196	2,900	6	10
World War I	116,516	204,000	113	310
World War II	405,399	671,000	304	807
Korean War	36,516	92,000	24	85
Vietnam War	58,209	153,000	32	118
War on Terror	6,717	51,000	2	20

In many ways, the US has been fortunate, in that there has not been a war fought here in 150 years (and, yes, I am aware of what some people think about the "war" on "terror"). 

And, when I think about this, I always think of Phil Ochs' song "I Ain't Marching Anymore":

'It's always the old who lead us to the wars,
Always the young to fall.
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me was it worth it all..."

Mostly, it has not been.