Bring Back Armistice Day

This Nov. 11, we ought to say out loud what too many people have forgotten: this day was once called Armistice Day—a day to celebrate the end of war, not to normalize permanent war. It marked the moment the guns fell silent on Nov. 11, 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Its purpose was simple and radical: never again. Over time, especially after World War II, the U.S. shifted the day into Veterans Day, and with that change, we lost something essential. We stopped centering peace.

If we really want to honor veterans, we have to put peace back at the center.

Our own history warned us about this drift. John Quincy Adams cautioned that the United States should not roam the world “in search of monsters to destroy.” Eisenhower warned that the military–industrial complex would gain “unwarranted influence.” We didn’t listen. Today, U.S. foreign policy is organized around exactly what they feared: a permanent global military posture, constant interventions, and a government that treats war spending as untouchable.

Look at the numbers. The United States is now spending over $1 trillion a year on militarism — once you count the Pentagon, nukes, intelligence, and related costs. That is about $2.74 billion every single day, and about $114 million every hour. Every hour, $114 million that could be going to house veterans, fund mental health care, build green energy, or cancel student debt — instead goes to weapons, bases, and war contracts. This is what Eisenhower called a theft from the people.

And yet politicians still posture as “peace” candidates. Donald Trump liked to call himself a peace president, but now he is blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela, orchestrating a massive build-up in the Caribbean and threatening to invade not only Venezuela, but Colombia and Mexico. He has been a full partner in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, he ordered strikes on Iran, he maintained the vast U.S. empire of military bases, and he bragged about that trillion-dollar war chest that sucks resources out of an already looted domestic economy. That’s not peace; that’s militarism with better marketing.

This is the contradiction of Veterans Day as we celebrate it now: we “thank” veterans while maintaining the very policies that create more wounded, more traumatized, more homeless, and more dead veterans. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reports 17.6 veteran suicides per day — and still we fund war first. If we actually cared about veterans, the first thing we’d do is stop creating more of them.

So let’s spell out what honoring them would really look like:

• Take care of the veterans who are here now — housing, healthcare (including mental health), jobs, community.
  

• End our support for brutal wars, including Israel’s assault on Gaza.
  

• Rein in the executive branch’s claimed authority to kill anyone, anywhere, on the basis of secret evidence.
  

• And most of all, cut the war budget and move that money to human needs.

Which is why we should come full circle. This day should once again be called Armistice Day. Names matter. “Veterans Day” narrows our focus to honoring service; “Armistice Day” calls us to prevent the next war. One remembers the soldier; the other remembers the silence after the guns stopped — and demands we keep it. On Nov. 11, let’s honor veterans the best way possible: by restoring the spirit of Armistice Day and fighting for a country that no longer spends $114 million an hour preparing for war.