It is impossible to know war if you do not stand with the mass of the powerless caught in its maw. All narratives of war told through the lens of the combatants carry with them the seduction of violence. But once you cross to the other side, to stand in fear with the helpless and the weak, you confront the moral depravity of industrial slaughter and the scourge that is war itself. Few books achieve this clarity. “The Photographer” is one.
- Chris Hedges
Rachel Maddow recently interviewed [Friday] two people involved in this visual history of a Doctors Without Borders mission in Afghanistan in the 1980s. As Hedges, who has written about war from first hand experience noted, we are shown "the damage done to bodies and souls by shells, bullets and iron fragments, and the frantic struggle to mend the broken." And, some by choice or not so voluntarily have gone into to the breach. No wonder so many join this sentiment:
But this day we mourn more than our own military dead. Yes, we are veterans, but we are also VETERANS FOR PEACE.
Abolish war and all the mourning it causes.
For this is the true way to honor our military dead. We do not do them a disservice to recall that all too often their service was at the hands of mismanagement and that the battles fought all too often could have been avoided. The horrors of war lead to the sane to be horrified, even in the midst of the "better" conflicts. From our vantage point, Northern "Cooperheads" who wanted to end the Civil War midstream might seem misguided at best. Then, we see the hundreds of thousands dead, many after the end was crystal clear. The madness of war continued.
Last year this time, I cited a reading of Cindy Sheehan given by Marisa Tomei, which ends by noting that she [Cindy] might be talking to the choir, but the choir simply is not singing loud enough. And, the choir needs to continue to speak loud and clear, particularly true progressives in Congress. As Rep. Donna Edwards says, Obama needs "tough love" as much as anyone else. This includes when he continues to promote war and bloodshed. Or, when he and his administration (judicial picks?!) promote excessive executive power overall.
So, honor where honor is due, and respect and service where due ... including by continual resistance of a philosophy and practice that all too recklessly provides more people to remember and honor in this fashion.