It's Veteran's Day!!!

That happiest of days.

Of course, in reality, it's Armistice Day, the day that marks the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, with its visionary provisions for the preparation and mounting of a World War "II". Basically, the first war was so popular ("great", the critics called it) that a sequel was immediately contracted for. It may be Veterans Day in the States but elsewhere it's Remembrance Day or still Armistice Day or whatever.

In England, for the whole month and then some), people -- respectable types, even -- walk around with paper poppies on their lapels (or lapel surrogates), remembering lost heroes and battles fought and, you know, the kaiser.

And in the spirit of the day (or month) I very much enjoyed an article I saw (this week, I think) in an English paper (the Daily Mail?). It was a piece detailing several things an Afghan government should have to agree to before Britain would send more troops. One of them was an opium-free economy.

The article was illustrated with a photo of the graves of soldiers lost in Afghanistan.

Each headstone was adorned with a paper poppy.