The festive atmosphere of the recent military parade in downtown Santa Cruz and the fair -like festivities in Watsonville, including the military jet fly over, tank display, etc, masks the horrors of war for the general public.

Adding to this are reinactments of Civil War battles etc where men dress in uniforms worn in past wars to celebrate the killing of men. This is sick. Global society regards men-as expendable surplus living automatic weapons. Men celebrating the murder of other men is very strange.

War is not festive, pretty or fun. Also fueling the fire for wars and battles of the future are military funerals. These rituals, which are supposedly held to honor the murdered soldier, have the side effect of legitimizing the military system that caused the soldier to be murdered in the first place.

His death is used to fuel more death. Killed soldiers should not be used as military propaganda. How horrible that the government uses their bodies to create more dead bodies by the ritual of public military funerals which sanctify murder of men.

There are many other ways for young men to achieve "honor" without having to DIE for it. If the worlds men realized they were used by rich men to make them richer, as in oil wars, their fury would rock the world.

How many college educations could be paid for by the money used in the latest gulf war (200 BILLION dollars)

US youth could get free college educations, drug and gang counseling, health care, job training and family planning services insted of their goverment KILLING THEM
What a discrace, especially women who cheer as their children are sent to war to kill the children of other women!

Now, even women are joining the military to kill the children of other women. These "little men" are pawns in mens game of death.

As the woman in the movie "Cold Mountain" said,
WAR IS MENS BULLSHIT!