It is not nature but nurture that motivates humankind to kill. We are not born killers. Killers are commodities, manufactured by governments to further the interests of the corporate ruling elite.

It is those few who gain by war who send the many to perish.

Perhaps it's time that the privileged and the wealthy be required by law to serve in the military, time they understand the consequences of their actions, time they share the sacrifices they require of others, time they experience the horror of war firsthand, time for the "Fairness Draft"!

Back in the day, 1979 or 80, I forget which, a VA Psychiatrist who was evaluating me for PTSD, felt the need, for some reason, to tell me he was in the military. "There but for fortune," he said, I would be sitting on the other side of this desk.

Marching in a parade neither educates nor informs about the realities of war. Rather it celebrates and perpetuates the myth of honor and glory, and "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." I will march no more.

LBJ, Nixon, Bush, Obama, Democrat, Republican . . . makes no difference to the dead and the dying.