I Regret

    “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” The infamous line of words that conjures from the past the ghosts of those that have sacrificed themselves in vain. Their screams from the trenches attempting to remind us of past failures propagated by the arrogance and power of those who play at being God.

#

     I sit on the cold wet ground, my back against a dirt wall that follows an irregular path, and then is gone. My legs stretch towards the root infused wall opposite me, my shoulder resting against a strangers. We share the uniform, the cause, a country, and the hope to survive, to begin once again.

    I watched as the buildings of my town disappeared in a flash of light and a thunderous growl. Nothing remains but the ruble of destruction and the silent bodies of those who are fortunate enough to no longer care.

    Chemical smoke fills the air as plastics burns, couches, chairs, drapes, smoldering evidence of what we once considered important enough to consume our thoughts. The air has turned black, the water brackish, life a shadowy gray interrupted only by the numbness that crawls inside me as I wait my turn. 

    We fight not because we want to, but are forced by circumstance to do so. Turning the other cheek is an admirable sentiment, but an unrealistic one. Forgiveness is only possible when reason prevails. Negotiating with the arrogant and powerful is an impossibility as they have abandoned the reality of reason. The need for empathy in overcoming aggressive action is no longer necessary.

    When one person, or a conglomerate of likeminded imperialists define themselves by their ability to subvert the will of a person or a nation, they have become immune to reason and undeserving of forgiveness. 

    Revenge is not possible no matter how much it is warranted or deserved, for it is impossible to extract justice from the madness of war. The people responsible for inflicting the suffering and carnage have only one life to give no matter the number of lives they have impacted or destroyed. Justice becomes an admirable notion, but cannot be enacted when it is not verified by all involved.

    No matter the wars outcome, the lives lost, buildings destroyed, it can never be justified by anything other than the delusionary efforts of those responsible. The addiction of power can never be satisfied by victory or loss, as in a war there can be no winners, only losers. 

    Progress is credited with the enhancement of our lives. Material comforts, the ability to travel, sanitation, medicine, all touted as progress, and it is. It has made life simpler, easier, at the same time dependent upon the exploitation of our planet. The same progress has fostered bombs, rockets, and the possibility of extinction. We are living in a time when the idealistic designs of a person or nation can be the conduit to the extinction of our species, as well as others.

#

    We have been asked to give what has nonchalantly been called the ultimate sacrifice. Giving ones life for a cause, for the betterment of others, nice words used to provide meaning to the senselessness that is war. 

    We have been trained not only in the mechanics of war but also the ethics of conflict. Attention is being paid to war crimes. Rules that forbid certain atrocities waged against civilians, hospitals, schools. Moral parameters to sanctioned murder is the ultimate conundrum. To expect dignity, civility, apathy, compassion, while bombs are exploding, people are dying, magnifies the dichotomy between war and peace, setting new limits, expanding parameters of the acceptable.

    Social systems, dialogue, patriotic fervor are massaged to give credence to the pursuits of leaders who have been isolated from everyday life. Death and destruction have little value as it does not directly affect them. Those entrenched in power and supported by the myth of it, have no respect for humanity at large because it provides no personal benefit for them.

    To combat the prevalence of power over order and reason, once it has escaped the confines of reason, there are limited ways to curb its influence. We can refuse to be pawns in their power games by choosing to fight against it, or we can submit to the reasoning that allows them to maintain supremacy at our expense.

    The dichotomy between good and evil is not the difference between the two, but that we must choose between them at all. Once we allow the contrast to become our only choice it is too late. We are forced to choose the lesser of two evils. Reaching that point limits reason and allows only reaction to violence, which to be affective, has to be violence. Non violent protest only prevails when dealing with an opposition that has a sense of morality and empathy. Having to reason with a power that does not, allows for only one outcome, subservience. 

    Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, Mohamed, all preached a pacifism that depended on the civility and ethics of a foe to not host wholesale slaughter on those that objected to their abuse of power. 

    Dying is no longer the fear of analyzing death. Once you reach a point where the numbness that accompanies death and destruction covers you like fog, you no longer care. Dying provides a means of escape, while life allows only the participation in furthering the results of war. Kill or be killed, the euphemism that allows you to discard the values of your God and a chosen direction for humanity, as you point your gun at the flashes in the distance.

    Dying for a cause is different than killing for one. I will gladly give up my attachment to life, reality, if it will put an end to the generational madness that threatens all life, war. But my death on its own, would simply become a statistic and accomplish nothing. It will take the concerted effort of the populace at large to choose peace by not allowing those dedicated to power to become entrenched in our social and political systems. 

    It will take the dedicated participation of the young as they have the most to lose, and the energy and optimism to prevail over those that seek power for the sake of power.

# 

    The horizon, no longer a dream, a poem, but a barbed wire obstacle to a better tomorrow. The whistle blows, we climb from the pretentious safety of the trench and run towards the unseen frightened faces of the strangers we will never have the opportunity to meet.