Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War ~ Julius Caesar

I’ve had very mixed feelings these past couple of days….


And expressing them may make some folks angry.

Oh well, better to get it out.

I am glad Osama Bin Laden was finally taken out, but all of the gloating going on is very distasteful to me.

Terrorism against any nation is a horrible thing.    It is not to be tolerated and all those who engage in it need to be punished.     An act of war was carried out.     A necessary act—I get that.

But the celebrations bothered me.    It looks like there were kids in that compound. Fortunately, they weren’t harmed, but I’m sure they were traumatized.    Who is caring for them now?     What will become of them?     How will they view the world as the grow up?     That kind of stuff was gnawing at me…..

Thank God the administration is being very circumspect:     We did what we wanted to do, moving on.     (As usual, the media is going overboard—enough already).      I hope they don’t release any of the photos—we really don’t need to see the gore.

All of the public’s high-fiving seems too much like thumbing our noses at the rest of the world as far as I’m concerned.     We need to take some responsibility for why we are not well liked in many parts of the world.     It’s that arrogant attitude that seems to permeate everything for the past decade.     We really need to take a humility pill. Yeah—our country has a lot going for it, but we aren’t the only game in town.     It can’t be our way or the highway.     Other ideologies have valid points too, people.

It’ll be time enough for small celebrations when we achieve some kind peace on this planet that is getting ever smaller....    And when all soldiers are returned safely to their families.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. -King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.

Today we celebrate Veteran’s Day here in the US.

I have very mixed feelings about that. My father was a veteran of WWII, serving in the Pacific. In the thick of it. He contracted malaria and suffered a brain hemorrhage, but his time in the military was one of his best memories. My eldest brother was a conscientious objector to the war in Viet Nam, he felt war was wrong. He got a very low draft lottery number and refused induction in 1970. In the thick of it. You can imagine the tension at our house….

And, hopefully, you can understand my mixed emotions. I was proud of what my father did, but understood and empathized with my brother’s point of view. WWII was a necessary action—Hitler and Japan had to be stopped. A fact that became even more apparent when the horrors of the concentration camps were discovered. And it was a formal, declared war. Viet Nam was the complete opposite of that. There was no clear reason why we were there, no exit strategy and lives were being brutally and uselessly lost or destroyed. Only to have it end pretty much the way it started…. [just like Korea before it]

Now, my brother wasn’t a coward. He proved that by NOT running off to Canada. No, he stayed here and was put on trial in Federal court. He was convicted of a felony for not wanting to kill people and was sentenced to 3.5 years of alternate service at Haverford State Mental Hospital . This was followed by 7 years of probation. During this period, he was unable to get any kind of meaningful employment because he was a convicted felon. And when interviewers heard what he was convicted for, they treated him like scum. Sadly, he started drinking and was dead of cirrhosis at the age of 33. Not all of the names of those lost in the Viet Nam war are on the wall in Washington.

While I greatly appreciate the many young men and women who voluntarily enlist, I still don’t understand why countries choose war as a means to settle differences. As a mother and a grandmother, I don't want to send my loved ones that I invested so much time and love into off to be slaughtered or maimed. I hate that other mothers have had to bury their offspring. I know many people will accuse me of being unpatriotic, but I have questions, doubts. I’m in the thick of them……

Peace.