Boxing Day, Soldiers

Today is the day after Christmas. I was reading a blog by a well known author, I won't mention here, yesterday. She had asked for prayers for many people in need. Many people responded to her request to hold in heart whatever group of people she had mentioned. She mentioned homeless, sick, etc. Then she mentioned praying for the families of those soldiers killed overseas, whose bodies were returning. The response of people was really interesting and significant I believe.
A few people were vehemently furious that she asked anyone to pray for what they labelled as "killers." Others agreed they were "killers" but asked for prayers for everyone involved in such tragedy as is war. There was the token soldier-on-a-pedestal sound byte too (which is offensive in its own way). The author went on to try to explain how complicated war was, that yes there are bad apples and we should pray for all those touched by suffering, but that most soldiers are there trying to building roads, schools, offer security, etc. That their families need our compassion as do many people, and that there lives contained acts of integrity and character.

Myself, with a foot in both camps, if they are separate camps: that is the peace movement and our soldiers: is constantly challenged to stretch my heart. How plainly I see their mutual goals.
The author's parents had been touched by war in Eastern Europe, as were her grandparents, and she knew the cost of not being protected and left vulnerable to bad actors and zealous mobs.

It seems to me our collective inability to speak about war in America, without reactivity and sound byte responses, will leave us vulnerable to the very thing we fear to think and therefore speak clearly about. War, spoken of in all its suffering and practicality reveals its very limited usefulness and moral confusion. We can not speak of war clearly if all soldiers are deemed killers and war is in every circumstance labelled evil. We can not speak of war clearly if we put our soldiers up on pedestals (sometimes with their families) thereby robbing them of their voice and demanding the price of hero worship: voiceless sacrifice in bearing the weight of all the suffering in these wars. Yes, the economy is in dire straights, but that it isn't a shared sacrifice to the full extent...only a fraction of the cost of these wars. We are buying them on credit and passing the bill to our kids.

This blaming and worshipping of soldiers just seems a distraction for the real issues at hand in this war. I can not think of an army family that I know that does not pray for peace and want their beloved one home. I can not think of a soldier that I know that is not doing his, or her, best. Yes, there are bad apples. I'm grateful that I don't know any personally. Yes, people under impossible duress "lose it" at times. War is rife with utter tragedy. In itself, it is tragedy: the utter breakdown of any possible negotiations and communication. It brings so much suffering. But it won't end.
It won't end unless Americans had to actually share the moral and economic sacrifice that war demands. It won't end unless people can actually think out things deeply and discuss these issues. If we did, then certainly, people would demand peace from their leaders and bring our loved ones home.