War is not the fault of the soldier.
They do not want to destroy, kill, or cause pain.
They want it all to end. They want to go home.
Many governments in this beautiful world do not take care of their soldiers. Once the job of a soldier is done, once usefulness is surpassed, they are tossed aside as bent and rusted tools to be replaced by newer models.
But there are few human beings able to fix a broken tool. And resources are certainly not funneled in that direction.
When you see an old soldier, you might feel pity, but that is not necessary. You might feel hate, but please don’t. You might hope to help them, if it is necessary. That is a start…
It might be enough just to give your full attention to another human being. It will never be a waste of time.
War is not the fault of the soldier. They are just another casualty.
20 Comments
Having served during the first Gulf War, I appreciate what you’ve said here. Don’t know what prompted this, but it’s apropos, and you’re right, these soldiers just want to come home… after they’ve done their jobs though. It’s an unbelievable sacrifice that we don’t even think twice about, and these men and women deserve our respect and gratitude. Thanks for posting this Takuin!
You’re a good man!
Mike,
Sometimes these posts come about after conversations with others, either on skype, through a chat program, or in person.
The actual dialog with another human being is always longer than these posts, of course. There is the interplay between two people, and it becomes more like an exploration with two eyes on one being, instead of two sets of eyes on two separate beings. But it can be difficult to come together at times.
This small post came about after such a conversation.
Hi Takuin,
Very well said and so true. It is so sad that many in society do not consider what soldiers go through. I think it is even worse that when they come home, they are ignored especially those who end having to spend many days at VA hospitals due to injuries.
War sucks and no one goes to war with joy. Most of us run in the other direction when confronted with a threat. Soldiers walk towards the threat and that is not an easy thing to do.
Yes, that is right Nadia.
More can be done to help. Not only for soldiers, but all human beings…
That is so true, Takuin. More can always be done to be of help regardless of whether someone is a soldier or not.
I do not see soldiers with any sense of nationalism or sentimentality, however. It is just the human being, opening and growing, breathing in, breathing out…
I completely agree with your post. In this sense, every human being is a soldier, marching to the orders of conditioning, utterly blameless…
Kaushik,
YES YES YES, you have it!
Some soldiers do want to fight,
Even though they sometimes do not know why;
Some ‘freedom fighters’ in Afghanistan are given a gun and join in for money to feed their families,
For Eternal Salvation
Or because their friends are doing it.
There are two sides to the story,
Always.
We are very privileged to be on ‘this’ side.
x
Thanks, Lune.
All stories have multiple facets, as you have said. And all facets are born of the same material.
I think humanity is growing in some way, and are reaching out to be better than the ancestry. We are still as terribly divided as ever, but I do not see it as beyond repair.
Were not quite on the precipice, but that is no reason for us to be lazy about coming together as a species. All One is still a possibility.
Hi Taukin ,
Thank you for this re-minder.
Our sons and daughters are NOT fodder for the cannons.
War is created from:
Ignorance
Greed
and Hate.
We all must continue to use the Internet and speak out for Peace.
IN JOY
Tricia
Namaste’
Thank you very much, Tricia, for your lovely message.
Absolutely…
Then Jesus said to him: “Return your sword to its place, for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
anyone who voluntarily joins the business of killing (which is what the military is all about) deserves whatever they get. the psychopaths who rule this nuthouse wage war for power and profit and it couldn’t happen without the soldiers following their orders so they are not entirely blameless.
so we’ve just murdered 100,000 plus innocent Iraqis who did nothing to us. now on to Afgahanistan. and they’re just itching to get to Iran. and rich evil old men get richer. what a game
‘Psychopaths in Power’
http://johndenugent.com/jdn/psychopaths-in-power/
Thank you, Tom.
When will you return your sword to its place, my friend?
as soon as i can. right now would be a good time. can you help?
Thanks, Tom.
I suppose right now is the only time we have. But I am not sure what you mean by help…
…if I see you at the side of the road with a flat tire, I can help. But I cannot solve any instance of violence within you. We can talk; you can speak, I can listen, and vice versa. But Takuin cannot solve something only you can be intimate with.
I learned the only thing in the world we can change is ourself,
and that makes all the difference in the world.
Now I understand what Mother Theresa meant when she said:
“I will not march against war ~ but I will march for peace.”
Bow to Teachers
Namaste’
Thank you, Tricia.
You’ve said it very well…I can add nothing.
“I will not march against war ~ but I will march for peace.”
to be FOR anything automatically means you’re AGAINST something else. duality… no freedom there.
and that mother theresa took in millions of dollars and gave the majority of it to the silk robed cretins in rome, the most corrupt religious organisation in the world.
“This returns us to the medieval corruption of the church, which sold indulgences to the rich while preaching hellfire and continence to the poor. Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?”
http://mostlywater.org/mother_teresa_faithless_fraud_and_hypocrite
We have freedom to choose the labels we put on our choices.
No right ~ No wrong. Just different choices.
Only you can and should answer your own question(s).
IN JOY,
Tricia
Namaste’