Happy Memorial Day!

I don't know if it's right to say "Happy Memorial Day". It is a rather somber occasion, no matter how much beer you drink over the holiday weekend. I have mixed feelings about the day. On the one hand, I celebrate the idealism and sacrifices of the nation's soldiers over the years. People willing to die for their country, for the ideal of liberty, that is both noble and deeply moving.

At the same time, it seems right to recognize that some of these sacrifices were made in the name of extending the American empire. Many of the wars we've fought have been wars of choice, with horrific consequences.

In honor of the day, I want to consider what we spend on war; not just spending within the Department of Defense, but all spending that could legitimately be considered war-related, including the interest payments on past debts that are due to war, the spending on veteran's care (not part of the DoD), the spending on maintaining our nuclear arsenal (part of the Dept of Energy, believe it or not). In fact, when all the accounting chicanery is laid aside, we find that a surprisingly large portion of the US Federal budget is war-related. The pie chart, from The War Resisters League, is a categorization of the Federal budget that takes into account the various ways the government tries to hide the true extent of war spending.

I believe we'd honor our fallen soldiers best by decreasing our spending on warfare, recognizing that with a smaller military presence, there will be fewer conflicts and fewer lives lost in those conflicts.