War. What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing.

Warning*** this is not a happy blog. Do not ready if you want to stay happy today...***

In honor of Veteran's Day...

I wrote a letter when this war began in the Middle East per George number two. I wrote a letter to soldiers I didn’t know – but thought about often. I am not a peaceful person by nature. I believe in an eye for an eye. I believe in the death penalty (with conclusive DNA evidence, or course. Nothing based on circumstance). I DO believe that we should kill people to show people that killing people is wrong. But war… Well – I just don’t get wars.

I ESPECIALLY don’t get this war.

But, rather than get into the war and what it’s about and why it matters, all I want to talk about is what REALLY matters. The soldiers that battle in these wars.

Whatever the battle… we’ve lost. We’ve lost sons, we’ve lost daughters, we’ve lost friends, we’ve lost fathers, we’ve lost mothers, we’ve lost. We’ve really lost.

And when I mean we’ve lost, I mean – we have lost. Because even for those persons who are still here, those soldiers who fought and were able to return home, they are no longer the people they were when they left. They are broken. And we’ve forgotten about them. We’ve forgotten that they laid their lives on the line, live or die, for the freedoms we enjoy every day. We are able to forget them, because they battle for us. Our daily lives do not change. Their worlds do. Lives shift in the balance, and somehow, that is something that many of them knowingly understand before enlisting, and more than understand when they return for their second, third or fourth deployment. Often, it is simply because they cannot leave those people they battled with-behind.

I don’t remember what I wrote in my letter, but the sentiments ring true to this day, for me. It was really important to me to convey how I felt about these soldiers who fight this battle, regardless of whether or not they agree with the war. It is their duty to go, and they honor their duty. My letter went something like this:

“I don’t know who you are, but I look for you every day. In news reports, on CNN, in any media outlet, I look for you. I search for you to make sure you are alright. I look for you to make sure you come home to us. I look for you to be sure that I remember the sacrifice you make for us. I look for you to mourn in case you have fallen. Fallen for me. I will always look for you, and remember. Come home. Come home to us safely.”

As the humdrum of life has gone on, and the war is covered less and less in the media, I have to admit, I look for these soldiers less and less, but the numbers still come through. This week, 30 people died. Next week – who knows how many? Fort Hood took 13 lives, on our own soil. No more war. We are all done.

As my daughter says, “All done.”

Let us be all done.