A Vet Who Wishes There Was No Veteran's Day

A veteran on Veteran's Day
wishing there wasn't any such thing.
What good does war do?
Why are humans so violent?

We are the most deadly predators
That ever evolved.
We dominate the planet,
Kill anything that challenges us, like wolves,
Or hunts us, like cougars, or steals our food,
Like rats.

And we treat each other the same way!
And yet, humans wouldn't survive
if they didn't cooperate.
We need food others grow, clothes others make, houses others build, cars others put together, computers others design, skills others know, and the list is almost endless, isn't it?
We make or do something in return.
That's called the economic system.

But some people have always been predators,
Others become prey.

From the first century BC to the fifth century CE,
Romans were the primary predators
in the Mediterranean and European world, at least.
From the fourteenth century to the 20th
the Europeans were the primary predators worldwide
lording it over, and ripping off "the natives."

In the 20th century, an upstart settler nation
That styled itself unconsciously on Rome,
but sprawled across a new continent,
Became the hero and then the new predator,
Dominant, globe-straddling, ideologically benign
in its exploitation and destruction: we destroyed
the village in order to save it, was their motto
in the third to last of wars that would bleed
its people white

and enrich its wealthy, who can leave the ruin
of the USA--for their homes in pleasant climes
and beautiful places, anywhere in the world but here.

The 21st century will not be American; it might be
Chinese, or Indian, or maybe Brazilian.
Maybe the 21st will be the century of the BRIC

Maybe, finally, it will be a century when Veteran's Day
Is no longer a big deal.