No One Wins A War

 I am deeply thankful for all the brave soldiers and military around the world, I am grateful for the service and the sacrifice that allows me to sit on my comfortable chair and write whatever occurs to me. I don’t take the freedoms I have lightly. So I mean no disrespect when I say No One Wins A War. Although I am afraid it could be misinterpreted, it is In fact it is my deepest respect for human life that forms those words.

When asked what war means to me I think I would define War as “a hostile conflict in pursuit of a goal.” That is a blanket statement, but it works for both the wars we fight with other people, and the battles we fight within ourselves. Addressing the former. The wars we fight with people. I imagine Humans have been fighting wars since the moment we developed imaginations and the ability to throw rocks. It wasn’t until the Sumarian war in 2700 BC that it was written down and since the moment when the King of Kish defeated the Elamites our planet as been wrought with conflict.

There has not been a moment without a violent conflict, somewhere around the globe, in all of human history. So I am not naive. I don’t think world peace is like a precious antique tucked away in the attic waiting to be unboxed, it doesn’t exist and it has never existed, save for maybe inside the most hopeful minds.

When I say No one wins a war it is my cry for that peace. Because the toll of War goes far far beyond its death count. I am not an expert on any part of world history, I don’t know dates or facts or strategies of war. I only know the suffering that conflict creates. War hurts everyone.

• It takes the promise of prosperity,

• It creates fear and the constant state of stress and anxiety

• It destroys property, creates displacement, and the loss of identity and certainty and hope.

• It brings the grief of losing husbands and wives and children as they sacrifice their time to the active duty of serving .

• It brings permanent loss in combat. Loss of limb, loss of life, loss of peace. Every soul is loved by someone.

• it destroys the earth, and art and architecture and dreams

We all know the toll war takes on our veterans. No person leaves the battlefield on the battlefield. They take those horrors with them , in their body. The physical and emotional pain that our soldiers carry is well documented and leads to more than 17 suicides a day. In order to evolve as a society War cannot be the only answer.

The toll war takes on us spiritually can not even be recorded. It hurts us to hurt people. When we speak unkind words into the universe we are hurting ourselves, when we injure another we injure ourselves, when we seek to destroy someone we are destroying ourselves, a small part of our psyche is annihilated when it is forced to hurt someone. In order to evolve as a society War cannot be the only answer.

More than the loss of life for our military , more than the civilian casualties and destruction, the damages of war disrupt everyone. War changes our DNA . We pass devastation on to our children. There is real science behind epigenetic changes making future generations more susceptible to certain disorders. In order to evolve as a society War cannot be the only answer.

When I say no one wins a war I mean every person that war touches is harmed, on every side and every generation.

The path towards peace is open communication, active listening, sharing of stories and life experiences. It would take empathy and guidance, diversity of thought and creative problem solving. The path towards peace demands mothers and grandmothers at the table on every side in every conflict. I have never seen this happen. So any anger perceivable in my statements come from the sensation we have not tried another way.

I don’t know enough about any of the 35 plus armed conflicts happening at this very moment around the world. I am not privy to any military intelligence, I can’t comment on what the right thing to do is. All that being said I understand the need for armed conflicts. Especially now. We are dependent on violence to achieve our goals, we have not explored or strengthened any other forms of communication. I don’t think anyone should have nuclear weapons. But I also don’t think we should have billionaires. This is the way it is, so I sit and watch and grieve .

The leaders of countries are like little boys who only learned to solve problems thru violence or threat, there has to be another way. Until then, even when we win, we lose some of ourselves. No matter how strong we are, when we hurt each other. No one wins.