War takes human lives

I read an article in a magazine.  The title of the article  is “Over 50 and Serving in Harm’s Way.” The title didn't really draw me to the article. I almost leafed right past it. About three quarters of the way through the article there was a picture that caught my attention.nothing fancy. A man standing holding a folded American flag. I stared at the face and the look in his eyes drew me in and I read the article. The flag he was holding was the flag that covered his son’s casket. He died  in Iraq from a roadside bomb. That explains the expression on his face. As I read and thought and stared at the photo I began to understand why at an older age he enlisted in the military . Closure! Wanting to give back some

I don't have a son and therefore can not fully understand what he must be going through. It is said one look is worth a thousand words. The look on his face I could see the hurt, the pain, the loss.rough.

Up to this point I have only considered the person being killed and what they must have gone through . What about the ones left  behind . The mothers, fathers, friends continuing to hurt . Their pain never goes away. They are the victims of war too.

I got to be perfectly honest  I don’t see anything positive about war.  Boundaries are changed. The so called winners now control the losers. Throwing them into captivity.  No one's mind has been changed. They still hate their captors. Maybe even more so as they are forced into captivity. The underlying problem hasn’t been solved. To try and force people to get along is laughable.

One of the most ridiculous excuses for going to war is in the the following statement. When asked what are you doing here. The answer is parroted “ We are here fighting for world peace.” Fighting for peace??? The two words don’t belong in the same sentence together. “ Fighting for Peace is like Screwing for Virginity.” Quote by George Carlin.

If Peace is our ultimate goal and war is our means of achieving it, then  why some much time spent warring and little to no time living in Peace.

It was said WW1 was the war to end all wars. Then came WW2. Then the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. I can't remember one day in the sixty two years I have been alive that the U.S. hasn't been at war some place in the world. Call it what you like when people organize to form what is called an army and deliberately set out to kill other people who have also formed an army with th same agenda then that to me is war.

What am I hearing? It's not officially a war unless it is approved by Congress.  If that wasn't such a deceptive lie it would be laughable. Call it what you like. People are killing people.

Korean War approximate numbers 150000 troops  from South Korea, US, and allies were killed. One million  South Korean civilians died. 800000 communist soldiers, and 200000 North Korean. What was it called a conflict??

Vietnam War 282000 allied military deaths, 444000 NVA/ VC, 587000 civilian  north and south died  equaling 1313000 a lot of deaths for a police action

War plain and simple.  And guess what war, warring, that war mentality was, is, will never work. The fighting is still going on in the same places, with same people,for all of the same reasons. What more can I say?

It just seems to me we that is all of us equally be the way, could be spending our  energy repairing, building, and saving our world and inhabitants instead of wasting it on violence, destruction, and killing. Just saying.nick