The cost of War

MAY 1915

Let us remember, Spring will come again,

To the scorched, blackened woods, where the wounded trees

Wait,with their old wise patience for the heavenly rain,

Sure of the sky: sure of the sea to send its healing breeze,

Sure of the sun. And even as to these

Surely the Spring, when God shall please,

Will come again like a divine surprise

To those who sit today with their great Dead, hands in their hands

eyes in their eyes,

At one with love, at one with Grief: blind to the scattered things

and changing skies.
Charlotte Mew 1869-1928

It has been a very long time since we as a country have experienced the violence of war on our doorsteps. The utter devastation surrounding you, as you live constantly in fear for your life and the lives of your loved ones. So long in fact that a fair few us could not claim to imagine, let alone know how it would feel. What feelings of dread and desolation must have surfaced to open your door, knowing you were safe but many more were dead. Buildings collapsed, bombs dropping, seeking shelter often in vain. What must it have felt like. I have seen the photos from the past and the bombardment of media images of wars present in my time. My heart goes out to those back then and those now. But I can not, no matter how hard I, try understand the true feelings that they must  have experienced everyday as they open their eyes. As they gingerly wake up in the sunlight perhaps momentarily forgetting the destruction being enforced around them, only to come plummeting down to the reality that today might be their last.

I have always had a reticence about whether war is ever justified, it seems to me that it is just an inevitability of human nature. One of our great flaws. Sometimes we wade in with the greatest of intentions, sometimes their is no rhyme nor reason other than to destroy others in the search for overwhelming power. The consequences are never as we planned and always far higher then ever we had intended. 

Every memorial day we stand and remember those that have given their lives,a poignant reminder of the costs people have paid. So many names, to many to list and some will never be known. A great silence and void of death. How can we stare into this void, acknowledge its' existence and still sleep walk so blindly into the devastation that surrounds us. We will destroy lives for our supply of oil, yet ignore the genocide that takes place as a consequence of our actions. We stare down a nation that is slowly edging its' way to challenging us to war. We watch and do nothing as Gaza and Israel, seek to eradicate each other in an unbalanced power struggle. What lesson did we learn precisely from the flattened cities and lives lost in this country in wars gone past. What precisely do we mean, when we say "Never, never again" I have heard those words so many times and yet I have watched genocides occur in other countries and wars raged in our name, then the consequences left to fight for themselves.  From the minute we have learnt how to kill each other, it seems we have not been able to stop.

To me, who will cry over the names of soldiers who died long before I lived. Who has images of violence and death imprinted on her mind by the media, and cries for those she can not help. Such pointless violence, seems just that pointless. But I have never lived in fear of my life of losing all I have to someone who just wants to take it all away. I am however an idealist, I would love to believe that world peace is possible. Certainly as a young child I honestly believed all I would have to do was collect every gun in the world and it would all stop. Of course this is a fantasy, born of a child's desire for peace. Life is more complicated than that. Politics and power, will always find a way to kill because for some not having their own way is worth destroying everything it is that they want. The lessons from history will not be and are not ever learnt, because at the end of the day some people, do not feel compassion or are driven to such levels of despair they feel that they have no choice. Does not make it right, does not make it easy and we should try and stop it. All I can do is hope, pray and help where I can.  

Amidst the flattened Churches and buildings walks Christ, his crown of thorns pressing on his head blood running down his face, his hands and feet shed blood too. He feels their pain and suffering, more than we ever could.   He holds the hands of the dying and guides them towards his Father. He does not abandon them and neither must we. Pain and suffering will exist in our world until the kingdom of heaven comes down to earth. Our job in the meantime is to meet Christ in his suffering and ease it as much as we can.