War is hell... so why are we in such a hurry to go there?

At this time of year -- Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day or whatever you choose to call it -- our custom is to pause for a moment and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Where Walt comes from, someone, often a child of schoolgoing age, will recite In Flanders Fields. Let's listen, after which Walt has some questions for veterans and survivors of our wars.



Since Lt.-Col. McCrae wrote those touching words, hundreds of thousands of young and not-so-young men and women from the western so-called democracies have given their lives. So have even greater numbers of our enemies. And still greater numbers of men, women, children and babes-in-arms who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As Eric Bogle wrote in "The Ballad of Willie McBride" (aka "No Man's Land" or "The Green Fields of France"), "it all happened again and again and again."

It is right that we should remember with sorrow and pride those who "joined the glorious fallen" in Flanders, France, Italy, the Ukraine, North Africa, Korea and all those other places. I include Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, not because I'm proud of what American, Australian, British and Canadian forces did there, but because those who died in a terrible place far from home did so without questioning of complaining.

Most of those who died in the West's adventures in Asia didn't have much choice. Some of them were conscripts, some were volunteers. No matter. They wound up in uniform and went where they were sent, and (mostly) did what they were told. And there their lives ended. Nowadays it's possible to bring more of them home in body bags, but many of them are still there. They must not be forgotten.

But Walt has a couple of questions for those who lived -- sometimes at the cost of an arm or a leg or worse -- to tell the tale.

What were you doing there in Iraq or Afghanistan or some other fly-blown God-forsaken sandpit?
What did they -- the generals and the politicians -- tell you about why you were there, putting your life on the line?
Did you believe all that BS about fighting a war against terrorism and defending your homeland?

What did you do, there, that you could tell your mother about?
Are you proud of what you did? Are you proud about what your comrades-in-arms did?

And... most important... would you do it again?
Would you gladly throw the torch to your son or daughter, asking them to be part of the next generation to be "butchered and damned"?
Don't you think it's about time we stopped spilling blood and spending treasure in foreign wars... for nothing?!

Here's a quote from Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam: The war in Vietnam was never going to be won. Nothing had been achieved by the outpouring of lives and treasure and the rending of American society. The assurances the public has been given were the lies and vaporings of foolish men.

Further reading: "‘Why the hell would I kill this kid?’: One Canadian veteran remembers the horrors of war", in this weekend's National Post.