Cross posted at the
Democracy Cell Project which also has a thoughtful memorial and 5 Minute Action Item on
the home page.
[Editor's note: On this Veterans Day, we honor all veterans who have served throughout history and our soldiers who are currently serving in Iraq & Afghanistan with this essay from DCP blogger Hawkeye.]
In Christmas of 1914 a strange thing happened -- something called the Christmas Truce of 1914.
My Belgian grandfather fought in WW1 and he was a part of this Christmas Truce, when enemy soldiers from Germany, France, England and Belgium spontaneously decided not to fight and kill.
Instead, for an entire week, they put down their weapons, climbed out of their trenches and met - on common ground - to share food and cigars and games of soccer. They exchanged photos of sons and daughters and wives, of a life beyond the battlefield where they could easily be neighbors, sharing a meal or watching a quiet sunset.
Incredibly, for an entire week, they befriended those whom their governments had demanded they kill.
Now, 90 years later, we are entering another holiday season. And on October 25, 2005, we reached a tragic milestone in America: the 2000th American serviceperson was killed in Iraq.
In September of this year, more than 150,000 pro-peace demonstrators marched in Washington, DC. I couldn't help but notice how some suggest that those demonstrators and others who are speaking out against the war are unpatriotic and traitorous and not in support of our troops.
I support the troops by embracing Gandhi's saying, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
Has the world become safer or more peaceful since we fought in Europe? Or Korea? Or Vietnam, Lebanon, Granada, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and now Iraq? Or is the whole world blind?
I support the troops by remembering - every day - that we are at war.
I support the troops by crying at the loss of their young lives, the pain suffered by their families, and the choices my government has made.
I support the troops by imagining a day when chants of "USA! USA!" interrupt speeches about ending poverty and hunger, and not those that boast of America's ability to rain fire onto other human beings.
I support the troops by asking which `moral value' is on display when we avenge the horrific murder of 3000 innocents by killing 30,000 more.
I support the troops by challenging the notion that anyone can build a `culture of life' here at home while spreading death and destruction abroad. Because you don't have to be a Christian to know what Jesus would do.
I support the troops with regret - regret that we train them to kill, send them to war, and then leave them to struggle throughout life with searing memories of battlefield horrors.
I support the troops by protesting the new language of war, which labels the death of innocent children as `collateral damage,' the accidental murder of their mothers as `regrettable,' the killing of journalists who seek the truth as `unfortunate,' the slaughter of the wounded as a `mop-up operation,' and that reduces human beings to `targets' to be `destroyed.'
I support the troops by not cheering the war they've been sent to wage or celebrating the battles they've won, but instead by joining the effort to bring them home now.
As we begin this holiday season, I support the troops by spreading the story of that week-long Christmas Truce of 1914. From a brief and remarkable moment, we know that peace is possible - and inevitable - as soon as we have the courage to say, "Enough!"
In the
words of Bob Dylan, "How many deaths will it take til we know that too many people have died?"
Is 2000 enough?
This is what 2000 soldiers looks like. Isn't this enough?
Thanks to Mark at The Fun Zone in Iowa City, Iowa for providing the toy soldiers.
~ Hawkeye