Why are we still choosing War?

Good morning! It looks to be a beautiful day in Colorado. High blue skies and not a breath of breeze. I'm predicting a warm one. 'Tis summer and there's no going back.

Today I am going to go to war. Not in the real sense, but in the rhetorical sense--words and pictures only.

War has been with us forever. We humans know no other "format" for achieving our goals when our goals are at odds with our neighbor's. For centuries men, women and children have lived through and died in war. No matter how much we may hate it, it continues.

I ask why? And I reply, it's because it’s what we know. It's what we've always done. But again, I ask why? Here the answer is not so easily given.

How do we stop war? Do we really want to stop war? Therein may the answer lie.

You say: of course we want to stop war. It's awful.

I myself grew up during Vietnam. I watched it on the nightly news. I saw the Vietnamese monks set themselves aflame. I saw our soldiers come home to anti-war and anti-military parades, sitins and riots. Many of those veterans have yet to recover their sense of self and self worth.

War is hell on earth! There is no other way to describe it, and yet we continue on. We invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the plane that dropped from the sky in Pennsylvania demanded it. It's what we do. Seven years later it's what we're still doing. Four thousand lives have been lost on the side of the invading force.  Ten of thousands of Iraqis and innocent bystanders have lost their lives as well.
There are many views about war. All of them valid. All of them true at one time or the other. World War I should never have happened, and once started, should never have continued. World War II grew out of the need to punish Germany at Versailles. WW II had to go forward. Hitler had to be stopped.

As I draw this day's posting to a close, I would like for you to think not about whether or not there were times in history when war was inevitable, but why now, with all we know and have seen and experienced, it continues still. Why nations spend lives, soldiers and civilians alike, forget the trillions of dollars that follow them to the grave.

Below is a poem I wrote. I was inspired to write it when I saw a Civil War Statue in a local cemetery. So stark was the young man's fatigue and sadness that I could not move on until I'd tried to capture it in words. This poem speaks to the fallen warriors of all times.

The Soldier
"Death has passed thru mine eyes and rid my soul of false beliefs"

Naked I am,
Though Clothed I be,
Where resides
The once was,
Me?

I am the ghost
In grassy fields,
‘side monuments
Where mourners kneel.

I am your conscience
And your dreams,
Promises made,
Yet unredeemed.

I am the soldier
Gone to war,
Bronzed in blood,
Paled by gore,
The once was youth
That is no more.

I am the sum,
The might have beens,
And now,
The never be.

I am the soldier
Cast in stone
For all eternity.

C. S. Lee
Copyright 2009

The end to war is possible.  It begins with you and me.