Gardening: Poppies and Wars

Happy belated Veterans Day to all of those who have served and continue to serve our country. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

In honor of Veterans Day, I planted some Flanders poppies on Wednesday. Everyone should be familiar with this flower. They are the inspiration behind the red paper “remembrance poppies” handed out by the millions to honor veterans in countries around the world.

The symbolism of the remembrance poppy on Veterans Day goes back to World War I. The red poppy has been known for centuries as the “corn poppy” because it grew as a weed in grain fields. The plant thrives in recently disturbed soil, such as a grain field, or a battlefield. For many years after the World War I, red poppies grew in abundance across the old battlefields, especially the battlefields in Flanders, a province of Belgium. Fertilized by the blood of young soldiers, it became the symbol for the end of that war and Veterans Day in America.

Poppies, especially Flanders poppies, are easy to grow. The seeds are tiny. I got mine from Seeds from Italy (growitalian. com). Eden Brothers (www.edenbrothers.com) also sells them. Eden Brothers happens to be one of my favorite suppliers of ornamental flower seeds.

I simply broadcast the seeds by hand around the edges of my yard and in my garden. Don’t worry about burying the seeds. Poppies of all kinds seem to sprout whenever they want to. The blooms come mostly in March and April. In Flanders they bloom later in the summer but never around the time ofVeterans Day. That’s why the poppies handed out on Veterans Day are made from red paper.

Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, which celebrated the end of fighting on the Western Front in World War I, the “war to end all wars,” as it was called back then. That didn’t work out so well. to rename the holiday as Veterans Day to honor those who served the United States in all wars, and there have been many since then - Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I, the Somali Civil War, the Bosnian War, Kosovo, Iraq War II, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan War began 19 years ago. Very likely, there are members of our military serving in Afghanistan today who were not even born when that war started. Some of them may wind up on missions to destroy fields growing another kind of poppy, opium poppies, which are a major source of revenue for the poor farmers of Afghanistan and a big reason for the U S.’s continued involvement.

On this day of remembrance, we should also recall that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia, an ally of this nation. The mastermind of those attacks, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US. forces nine years ago in Pakistan. Yet the war continues in Afghanistan, a country known as the graveyard of empires.

Indeed, it would be strange to call this holiday Armistice Day anymore, for that word “armistice” indicates an end to fighting. We are now raising a generation of citizens who have never known a time when the US. was not at war, even if they know very little about it.

The television news media hardly ever covers the progress of the various conflicts in which the United States is engaged. Moreover, the Department of Defense has made it very difficult for journalists to effectively cover the wars. The DoD routinely classifies the most basic information about battlefield progress, such as combat fatalities and civilian casualties. Journalists who do cover the front lines must do so in “embedded” units, where the military brass can more easily steer the narrative.

I read something today that really ticked me off. Tuesday, on the eve of Veterans Day, Senate Republicans unveiled a $1.4 billion stop gap spending package (remember, our federal government is no longer bound by an actual budget, but operates through these periodic stop-gap spending bills). This particular stop-gap bill includes $696 billion for defense.

Here’s the kicker: these socalled fiscally conservative Republican Senators want to spend even more than the Pentagon asked for. Here’s just one example, as reported by DefenseNews. com: “The Senate panel would fund a total of 96 F-35s in FY21, 17 jets more than the Pentagon’s request and five more than the panel’s House counterpart.”

This is the fighter jet that only recently began flying after billions in cost overruns, nearly 20 years of development and numerous crashes. And the Senate Republicans appear to be in a race to outspend the Democraticcontrolled House. Are we living in topsy-turvy land?

By now everyone should be familiar with President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex during his 1961 farewell address. In case you haven’t read or listened to that famous speech, here’s the meat and potatoes:

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government We recognize the imperative need for this development Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”

It’s been nearly six decades since he made that warning, but the doors continue to revolve between the Pentagon, Wall Street, defense contractors and “think tanks” who never see a war they don’t like.

General David Petraeus is the most prominent example. In case you don’t recall, he’s the disgraced retired Army general who pleaded guilty to passing classified information to his mistress Paula Broadwell. He got slapped with probation and a fine. Petraeus is now a partner of the investment fret Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) and serves as chairman of the firm’s Global Institute. He’s still a darling of the cable news networks, having most recently weighed in on President Trump’s election lawsuits.

According to the US. Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare wars, not the President But Congress has not officially declared a war since World War II. Instead, our elected iepiesentatives have deferred to the president’s judgement and “authorized force” only after the conflicts started. Its time for Congress to start escercizing their authority on this issue. They still have the power of the purse, but Tuesday’s Senate action indicates they have little will to do so.

So in honor of our veterans, besides planting poppies, I’m sending a letter to my iepiesentafives in Congress, Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Rep. Michael McCaul. I’m calling on them to end these unnecessary wars, this spilling of our nation’s blood and treasure. I humbly ask all of you to consider doing the same. You can contact them at the following addresses:

Sen. John Cornyn

517 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Email by visiting his website, www.cornyn.senate.gov

Sen. Ted Cruz

404 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Email by visiting his website, www.cruz.senate.gov

Rep. Michael McCaul

2001 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Email by visiting his website, wwwmccauLhouse.gov