These days, no national holiday is required for a pretext to display a Belgian flag from your window. Those who still believe in national unity (especially residents of the capital Brussels) have been buying up flags in droves as the political crisis over formation of the coalition government drags on. But today Armistice Day (as it also used to be known in the US) is an especially patriotic day, as attested by the hundreds of people who braved blustery November rains to join the king at the Place du Congres in Brussels.
In recent years we have been to a number of Veterans Day ceremonies at the American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries throughout Luxembourg, Belgium, and France. For history buffs contemplating braving the mounting Euro, a visit to one of these cemeteries is highly recommended. Brits are already familiar with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries, many of them lovely little pockets of the British Empire forces in the very places where soldiers fell in the Great War or in World War II.
In the hoopla surrounding French President Nicolas Sarkozy's address to the joint session of Congress last week, I hope that someone in Washington remembered the "American Heroes Repatriation Act of 2003," introduced back in the dark days of "freedom fries" by Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R., Fl.). It would have encouraged the desecration disinterment of American soldiers graves from the ABMC cemeteries in France and Belgium, allies which had declined to join the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq. As far as I can determine, the bill went nowhere after being filed in committee, but it did garner four co-sponsors. I wonder if any of these Representatives joined in the standing ovations for Sarkozy last week?
But I shouldn't get snarkily political on a day like today. Veterans Day and Memorial Day mean a lot to me, especially at these places of "painful beauty." In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, American military cemeteries in Europe became natural gathering places for thousands of French, Belgians, Luxembourgers - and Americans - to share in the common sense of tragedy, but also solidarity in the face of a new threat. Too bad this opportunity was squandered in the headlong rush to invade Iraq. There I go again, getting political.