“To my son: Since your eyes were closed mine have not ceased to weep.”
This poignant epitaph, etched on a World War I tombstone in a cemetery in France sums up the tragedy of war.
For millions of parents, wives, and children throughout war, the oft-repeated statement “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” has little meaning, knowing they will never see and touch their loved ones again.
To tell them that their men died for freedom, for honor, for glory, to make the world safe for democracy, is meaningless. And not even the truth. As Hemingway wrote, “In modern war, you die like a dog for no reason.”
Many years into the war in Iraq, perhaps the question is not whether going to war was right or wrong, but why such a folly as war is so much part of human history. The Battle of Buxar, the Battle of Omdurman, the Battle of Cape Breton–none but an history buff would be able to explain what they are. And he would have to be very good at it, too.
Yet, when they were fought, they were fought for the very same reasons that leaders like to send other people’s sons and daughters to die in war for–honor, pride, love for one’s country, freedom.
Today, when those battles are forgotten, as with so many down the sands of time, the hurt that was inflicted on those who lost their loved ones is also forgotten. And yet history repeats. And repeats. And repeats.
So, too, with Iraq. Years on, the platitudes that are heaped on the graves of the dead–that they died so that Iraq be free — are as meaningless as the deaths of those who died in the trenches of World War I for King and Country.
They, too, were told they were dying to make the world safe for democracy. War, in its essence, is folly — an utter failure of the human spirit. It destroys both the living and the dead–this week, in an event similar to that of the US soldiers who testified to the brutality of the war in Vietnam in February 1971 at the Howard Johnson motel in Detroit, contemporary veterans of the war in Iraq testified to the horror in Iraq.
War leaves none unscathed–beyond the dead and the wounded are the walking dead.
Does war have any meaning? Close to where I live is Dresden–a city that was firebombed during World War II. Today, a mere 60 years from the end of World War II, one can travel from Portugal to Estonia with a single passport –driving over borders that were defended to the last man just a few decades ago.
And the ruins of Dresden, a magnificent city that was hailed as the Paris of the Elbe, stand in mute testimony to the stupidity and callousness and the ultimate failure of war.
What Napoleon and Hitler failed to do through the horror of war has been achieved. Today there is a united Europe won through peace and not war. And in peace, Europe has prospered.
Why can we not wake up to the horror that war, no matter how laudable, is the end? For those who have seen limbs torn and loved ones gone to an early grave, it is bitter to be told that “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”.
Let us hope that in our lifetimes, or in our children’s lifetimes, we will see an era when nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, nor learn war any more.
I wrote these years ago when I was living in Leipzig, and I would turn on the TV and get the news about wars and violence in different parts of the world. Far from the country and my family, I would join the call with many others for tolerance, for understanding, for openness.
Now, our side of the world is also haunted by war. I hope we actively work together to transform conflict, to bridge the gaps, to break the barriers, to listen, to understand, to actually see each other, and let respect and compassion reign.
While some would argue that war is a means to an end, history would show us that the kind of victories won through it meant a loss of homes, of lives, of pain that rarely leaves, and wounds that are hard to heal, and it severs that fragile bond that binds us together.
Martin Luther King Jr. was clear about this when he declared, “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Let’s take heed for our country, for our own sakes, and most of all, for our children.
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Author’s email: jenny.elmaco@gmail.com
