One day commemorated in capitalist Canada is Remembrance Day. Other imperialist powers have similar holidays. The US has Veterans Day and Memorial Day. A question that I think should be asked is what purpose these days serves. A revolutionary Marxist I would argue that such days serve no other purpose then to drum up national chauvinism and support for imperialist war.
As for wars Canada has been involved in, there is the War of 1812, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the War on Afghanistan and the War on Haiti. The US has been involved in the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the War on Afghanistan, the two Persian Gulf Wars etc. (There are really too many to list for the US).
Britain ruled the world from the barrel of the gun all the way till World War II. They invaded people's in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia etc. France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland and the like have similar blood-soaked records. Britain and Holland fought in the Boer-War and the Napoleonic War. Britain, France and Germany both fought in both world wars. I want to apologize in advance if I don't get down to the point.
Well for World War I. It was an inter-imperialist war. Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were all imperialist powers fighting for markets, resources sources of cheap labour, raw materials and spheres of influence. This being the case revolutionaries have no side. And revolutionaries at the time rightfully fought for turning the imperialist war into a civil war of the proletariat (working class) against the bourgeoisie (capitalist class). Revolutionaries OUGHT TO honour the soldiers who point their guns their generals and the capitalists though. This did in fact happen in Russia and made the October Russian Revolution successful.
As for World War 2 this was a similar situation. Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy were all imperialist powers and revolutionaries didn't side with any of them. Revolutionaries did take a side with the Soviet Union, a bureaucratically degenerated workers' state (a state based on collectivized property where capitalism had been overthrown but where political power had been monopolized by a privileged bureaucratic caste which rested atop the workers' state). The Soviet Red Army smashed the Nazi war machine (no thanks to Stalin and other bureaucrats though) and the they SHOULD be honoured.
As for the Korean War, Revolutionary had a side with the Soviet Union as well as China and North Korea (the latter two were bureaucratically deformed workers' states which is similar in definition to a bureaucratically deformed workers' state) against the Imperialist powers led by the U.S. and included Canada, and many countries from Western and Northern Europe.
As for the Vietnam War, North Vietnam was a bureaucratically deformed workers' state and the revolutionary working class had a side with it against US (and Australian) Imperialism. The Soldier to be honoured were the Viet Cong as well as the US draft dodgers and defectors like Mohammad Ali.
As for the two US led wars on Iraq and the US led war on Afghanistan, revolutionaries sided with Iraq and Afghanistan without giving any political support to the reactionary Taliban or the bloody capitalist regime of Saddam Hussein. The Balkan wars were similar Revolutionaries sided with Serbia against the imperialist without giving political support to the genocidal regime of Slovajo Milosevic (I hope I am spelling that right). The US led war on Bosnia would be quite similar.
As for the American Civil War, revolutionaries had a side with the Northern Union against the Southern Confederacy. Capitalism in the US had yet to cross over to reaction at this point. It wasn't until the notorious Compromise of 1877 that they crossed over to reaction. The capitalists in Europe crossed over to reaction in 1848.
In the same light the American Revolutionary War was supportable as it free American farmers and capitalists from the grip of the British colonial overlords. This was a political revolution. While the American Civil War along with the English Civil War, the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution were social revolutions.
As for the Mexican-American war, it was a reactionary war on the side of the US. I am embarrassed to admit that Marx and Engels initially supported the US. Fortunately, they later repudiated this stance. Marx and Engels initially thought that when European and American powers colonized people it lead to economic and social development in those colonies. They saw the blood spilled as a tragic necessity. They later realized that when the US or West European powers colonized people's, they didn't promote social and economic development but arrested it. Britain promoted the caste system in India and tribalism in central Africa. More recently, the US led forces enshrined Sharia law in Afghanistan and in Iraq they gave the mullahs the authority to strike down any law they saw as "un-Islamic".
As for the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic War, revolutionaries had no side. Revolutionaries did not have a side with either Britain or Holland in the Boer-War or with the US or Spain in the Spanish-American War.
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