It's Veterans Day. Let's talk about peace.

The ceremonies are unfolding as I type. Patriotic music. Military vehicles. Skydivers. A veteran walks to the microphone to speak.

But we should start at the beginning.

The Allied Nations and Germany informally ended World War I on November 11, 1918. The war was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, and later that year President Wilson declared November 11 Armistice Day. The name was eventually changed to Veterans Day in the United States, and other countries celebrate a version of it as well.

Unlike Memorial Day, which remembers America’s war dead, Veterans Day commemorates both the LIVING and DEAD, both WARtime and PEACEtime military personnel who have served honorably. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs puts the number of living war veterans at nearly 17.5 million, with about 6 million more living veterans who served during peacetime.

Even though there is an emphasis on living veterans and on including peacetime veterans, it must not be forgotten that Veterans Day was born out of war. Out of “The Great War” to be exact.

And so war got me to thinking about peace.

There have been times when the United States was not at active war, but I consider myself a world citizen too. And can you remember a time when there was not war in the world? It sounds like a silly question. But with all of the unparalleled human advances in science and technology over the last century, why don’t we have world peace? (Humor me.)

I’m discouraged by our ongoing Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the five-year war and genocide in Darfur and the more than half-century Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to name a few.

So I decided to use this Veterans Day to do a little research on how we can have world peace. (Again, humor me.)

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission was a great start. Although I was pleased with the three-year-old commission’s mandate of bringing “together all relevant actors to marshal resources and to advise on the proposed integrated strategies for post conflict peacebuilding and recover,” I still wanted answers on how to PREVENT war. Not just build peace after war.

Then I read a Veterans Day statement by two veterans of the Global War on Terror, who are now peace activists. They are calling on the American people to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their joint-statement, the Iraq War veterans said, “We believe that veterans and active-duty GIs are in a key position to stop illegal and unjust war, and we are inspired by the resistance of troops who stood against the war in Vietnam.”

That was promising. But I still didn’t want to differentiate between just and unjust war. I’m looking for no war. Period. Thanks.

I was hopeful after reading about a 23-year-old peace organization run by veterans. You’ve probably heard of the non-profit humanitarian organization called Veterans For Peace. If you haven’t, the organization is working

“(a) Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war
(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
(c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.”

Okay. Now we’re talking. “To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.” I like that. But how can we achieve that globally?

Well, I wasn’t fully encouraged again until I took a break from my research to listen to some music. I’m not sure if anyone was listening a few decades ago, but all of the answers were spelled out by legendary musician Bob Marley in his song “War:”

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.
That until there [are] no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.”

I had other thoughts to add, but I think I’ll leave it at that. Have a peaceful Veterans Day.