(I composed this essay as my contribution to a conversation initiated by a friend who is a combat vet talking about how he opposed the war, before during and after his service, but did his best while there to protect his comrades from harm.)
I believe that none of us have standing to pose in a safe place and criticize those who faced what we know only in theory. I think we cannot overdo thanks and honor to all those who served.
Also I believe we cannot overdo honor to those in a thousand places and thousands of years who did not go to war, but had war come to them. The mothers who used their bodies to try to shield their infants from the bombs; the children who scrabbled for food in the rubble; the doctors and nurses who worked to heal until they succumbed. Those who were brave and those who were overtaken by terror --- on any side of the lines (if there were lines) --- in VietNam, in Russia, in Germany, at Pearl Harbor, at Guernica, in Rwanda, in Cambodia, at Hiroshima, over and over again in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, France.
Those of us who have never seen our homes ripped apart by bombs, our neighbors slaughtered, our children and parents and lovers ripped apart by shrapnel --- we can easily forget the awfulness of war. We can fail to teach our children that war is unspeakably ugly. We can forget how lucky we have been so far.
War can look grand through the filter of distance and time. We can see the light in the eyes of the brave soldiers, and think that war is all about heroism, about passing a life test with high marks, proving oneself. War is especially seductive to our young men who yearn to do something brash and dangerous and glorious.
I have another good friend who served at the D-Day landing. He has kept contact with his fellow soldiers and has met with them regularly; they are his companions for life. His work after the war was in education, and he has spent much of his own time working for peace and helping develop programs to resolve conflicts. I once asked him if he thought any war was justified --- what about the war against Hitler? He said he thought there came a point in that conflict when war was inevitable, but it would have been possible to avoid getting to that point if enough people had determined that the costs of war are more horrible than the costs of a just peace.
Peace won't maintain itself. War provides tremendous profits in wealth and power to those who position themselves to profit; there will always be people willing to promote wars for that reason. Unless we speak out, are willing to be fools who throw ourselves against the machine, teach our children and grandchildren not to believe the speeches of the demagogues and the excitement of the trumpets and drums, war will happen again and again. We are fools if we think it will always happen somewhere else.
It will take the efforts of millions to stop wars, but it could be done. Wars are waged by humans; humans could stop them. How important is it to us? Picture yourself huddled in inadequate shelter under a bombing run, and then ask that question.
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