Her Excellency Prime Minister Destiny Elmo Delivers Veteran's Day Speech

*This speech was given at Elmo Province this evening in front of Starlander citizens and fellow neighbors at 4:00pm (SST)

My fellow Starlanders, friends, and micronationalists,

Today, we remember the brave men who fought and either died or survived the atrocities of World War I. From 1914-1918, the "Great War", "The War to end all Wars" was fought after a Serbian man assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinad. This launched a four year war between the alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire and the alliance of Russia, England, France, Italy, and the United States. The war would cost tens of millions of dollars and over 10 million lives. And those who were able to survive this terrible tradgedy lived to see the official end on the war on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, of the eleventh hour. For years, and by some still today, we remember this as Armistice Day. In the US, and in Starland, we remember this as Veteran's Day. These brave men fought valiantly for their countries and for liberty. Some died, some survived. And although many of the survivors no longer are with us today, there is so much we can learn from them. The war introduced new and atrocious forms of warfare: trench, chemical, tank, air. Trench warfare proved to be, if not deadly, and sufferable type of warfare, with the most common case being trenchfoot. The introduction of poison gas would kill and blind millions of men during the horror of these four years. Tanks killed millions more. As micronationalists, we are thankful that war most likely will never come to this. But in the macronational world, this is a lesson to be learned.

World War I ended but its legacy would be the groundwork for the rise of communism, fascism, global economic problems, and future conflicts that still continue to plague us today. Shortly before the war ended, Russia was forced to pull out due to a communist uprising in their motherland. Eventually, the Bolsheviks would gain power and hold it until the early 1990s under the leadership of leaders like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khruschev, and the liberator Boris Yeltsin. Fascim would grow due to the German Weimar Republic's economic collapse, leading to the rise of the infamous Adolf Hitler, whose racist Nazi Party would plague Europe and cause World War II, killing millions more and eventually causing Germany's downfall. The failure of the League of Nations and the "war to end all wars" as well as global bickering has continued to cause further conflicts that plague our planet today. Global economic problems such as the German economic collapse in the 1920s and the Great Depression in the US and abroad in the 1930s, while eventually solved, still have presented problems for the world today. The 2008 US Economic Meltdown and the recent crises in Greece are just a few examples that economic trouble continue to be a problem as well as diminishing natural resources.

In Starland, economic problems know no bounds. Our economy has recently collapsed along with our government. For several days, we had to govern under a military junta. I, myself, and the President were leaders of a council of six where we discussed non-stop on how to help our nation recover from such a catastrophe. We faced a small uprising over the weekend, but we suppressed it and we have now brought our government back to work. and have begun the recovery efforts. We will rebuild and rebound. We will be encouraging more American currency to flow into our micronation to help rebuild the value of the Starland Dollar. Our government will be trying to establish a civilian tribunal for our people to prevent excess bickering and civil conflicts. The Senate will be required to meet every afternoon or evening from Wednesday through Saturday, with exceptions for religious services.

So on this day, as we remember the veterans of World War I and all other wars: World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, let us remember the veterans that are ourselves. That when faced with conflict, when faced with an opponent, whether physical or not, we can all raise a sword, a rifle, a flag, even a pen we can hold our heads high and say, "We are strong, our spirit is stronger, you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

Thank you and Happy Veteran's Day!

~Her Excellency Prime Minister Destiny Elmo