'War, Huh, Yeah, What is it Good For?'

I am sick of the wars going on in this world.

Fighting. Killing. Shattered families. Obliterated towns. Soldiers fatigued, away from loved ones for far far too long. Tanks, bombs, bullets meant to maim and destroy - to kill. To kill. To beat an enemy into submission, or to destroy him entirely.

Money, scads of money, much of it earned by peaceful people, minding their own business, raising their own families, gladly living within the rules of a civilization they honor and appreciate, and would fight for. Money taken from them to be poured into a nasty, complicated warring disagreement.

How long will the United States be in Iraq? How many young men and women, some are friends of mine, have to leave their anxious families behind to go fight to patch up a country that repeatedly rips out fresh sutures, continually, passionately tearing itself apart? How many parents have to attend funerals when these brave 'kids' come home in ugly coffins, or are left stiff and dead on the very streets where they should be playing with their children? How much money will we have to give that could be spent improving our children's future, and in benevolence to families around the world? How long will the sensible people in Iraq have to endure the tyranny and bloodshed directed at them by crazed factions, people who are their very neighbors, their countrymen?

All because a nation is at war with itself, over what? Religion? Ideology? Territory? Greed?

I thought I understood why we went to Iraq, I thought we would free those poor people from Sadaam's reign of terror, I thought they would be released from their bonds to begin anew, and we could come home, leaving them to restore their country on their own terms. Who knew they'd go bananas? Lots of people knew. And we went anyway.

It's a noble goal, to encourage democracy and peaceful coexisting around the world. It's a brave people who offer help when others are oppressed. It's mandatory that civilians support their troops at all times, whether they agree with the cause or not. These things I understand.

My grandparents lived through two World Wars. WORLD wars. How does a thing like a WORLD war come to occur? (Rhetorical question, Tom keeps me informed on the 'whys.')

The Vietnam War darkened my cognizance from its beginning. Horrific. Torture. Death. Disaster. Nations torn asunder. After Vietnam left the headlines, it was the ongoing Cold War that dominated my awareness of things dark and scary. Terror. Worry. Hate. Madness. The Middle East is never peaceful, constantly erupting. Iran. Russia. Afghanistan. Bosnia. Africa. Central America. Iraq. I can't name them all, I can't remember them all. They've blurred together into one red-hot cauldron of insanity.

"There has been so much suffering in the twentieth century...We need to use the suffering of the twentieth century as compost, so that together we can create flowers for the twenty-first century." ~~Thich Nhat Hanh

And how do we go about doing that when the peaceful people are at the mercy of those who prefer to fight rather than negotiate, to angrily destroy, rather than listen and respect? To kill? To kill themselves in order to kill you and me?

I just don't understand.

And yet, I do.

This is the world we've created, we human beings, we sinful, broken people.

It will not always be so.