OPINION:

Tuesday is Veterans Day. It also marks the anniversary of the end of fighting in World War I, once called — try not to laugh — the “war to end war.”

That chapter from the yellowing pages of history should remind us that war will always be with us.

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day to commemorate the day in 1918 when the guns went silent on the Western front. The carnage of the Great War was unimaginable at that time: approximately 16 million dead, civilian and military. That number was dwarfed by World War II, with 75 million to 80 million dead, twice as many civilians as military.

When he was shown the Treaty of Versailles (signed on June 28, 1919), Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the last French commander in World War I, said it wasn’t a peace treaty but a 20-year truce. He was eerily accurate. World War II started on Sept. 3, 1939.

The “war to end war” was followed by World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Six-Day War, Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are just the wars that come immediately to mind. The University of Uppsala in Sweden has identified 285 distinct armed conflicts since 1946.

Blessed are the peacemakers? Sure, but peace isn’t always possible. Attempts to make peace in the face of unspeakable evil often lead to greater carnage in the long run. The Munich Accords, which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hailed as “peace in our time,” paved the way for World War II.

The plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will resolve nothing other than giving Hamas a breather. When people have been saying they want to kill you since time immemorial — people who routinely torture hostages and whose religion calls for holy war — believe it.

In America today, we have an undeclared war of Marxist revolutionaries against the nation. Under President Biden, 10 million entered our country illegally, including terrorists. Consequently, a civil war now rages from Los Angeles to Chicago. The left has targeted agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since President Trump began deportations, attacks on ICE officers have increased 1,000%.

The goal is to keep millions here illegally and to drain our resources to support them. The government shutdown is partly because of the Democrats’ demand to fully fund health care for illegals. The left wants to get them voting and to wait for the day when the border can be opened again and they will be joined by tens of millions more. Then, America will be unrecognizable.

Mr. Trump is fully engaged, both at home and abroad. He has changed the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War to show our seriousness here.

The United Nations was organized in the optimistic glow that followed World War II. In the past 80 years, it has proved worse than useless, often exacerbating conflicts. That was Mr. Trump’s message when he addressed the General Assembly on Sept. 23.

An organization initially dedicated to peace is now controlled by warmongers: totalitarian thugs and jihadis. In Vladimir Putin’s war, Russia and Ukraine have endured more than 1 million dead and wounded. China periodically threatens war over Taiwan. Russia and China are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — pillars of the international community, you might say.

The United Nations is inveterately anti-Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. In 2024, the General Assembly condemned Israel 17 times and the rest of the world six times. Israel is also the most frequent target of aggression, the latest being the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, during which Hamas murdered 1,200 of Israel’s citizens, many in the most savage fashion imaginable.

War is a reality. It has been throughout human history. The first tool made by a prehistoric man was probably a weapon. The Bible tells us there will be universal peace only in the messianic age. Until then, keep your powder dry and your weapons handy. After years of neglect, Mr. Trump is proposing a 13.4% increase in the fiscal year 2026 defense budget.

No sane person wants to see the devastation of war, but war can be only mitigated, never eliminated.

It’s not the worst thing to befall humanity. As Winston Churchill said in 1940: “War is horrible, but slavery is worse, and you may be sure that the British people would rather go down fighting than live in servitude.”

Sometimes, those are the only choices.

• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.