Tomorrow is the time when we're to gather as a nation and pay our respects to those people who had borne the brunt of terrible events throughout history. We come together to remind ourselves that our comforts have costs, and that anything worth keeping is well worth the lives we give it. But somehow I have to wonder if high ideals such as those really apply to the modern world?
During the first half of the 20th century, it seemed that public perception of war had begun to change in many ways for the better. The major conflicts of that time, so close together, culminated a staggering cost to the nations of the world. The loss of life, and the horrors witnessed seemed to waken thoughts more geared towards ending conflict. But that was just an awakening, seeing as how there were more wars to follow, as well as the threat of nuclear armageddon lingering ever present in the background. I wouldn't say we didn't learn, since no war has ever been as large or grandiose as the Second World War. But wars have become smaller and more secular, contained to areas which many North Americans and Europeans have never been. The one thing we have not learned throughout the last century is to stop romanticizing war. The modern media produces spectacular television shows and movies designed to have intense impact upon the psyche, bringing the emotional content to the viewer like an electric shock, jolting you into the drama. But even with these scenes which still only give a removed view to the conflict, the viewer doesn't fully experience the one characteristic that truly makes war terrible: loss. Civilians watch thousands of murders on television every year, but few ever experience the taking of a life, or the violent ending of someone they know up close. As a result the impact of loss is still not felt as widely as it had in the past, and people go on about their lives not bothering to think about the consequences that come from violent conflict. Therefore war is solely remembered on one day a year.
The service to a nation of people who have no concept of absolute terror other than listening to the dwindling few who speak, is becoming questionable. As a nation we regard war as horrible, and no longer wish to engage in the conflict. Keep our troops home, and let them fight their own war. But really we no longer want to go to war not only because it is terrible, but there is not that same sense that there is something terrible with which to battle against. The Second World War set the precedent, by which all other conflicts have been measured, and rightfully so. It had a broad sense of legitimacy which no government had yet to fully produce when attempting to gain support for another war. The latest major conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan seemed to carry that legitimacy in the initial stages. When the twin towers fell the whole world was behind the US, wanting those who were responsible to be brought to justice. Everyone felt war was legitimate. Once the war on terror began though support began to slip. Information to the public was so convoluted, and didn't link up well at all. Conspiracy theorists cropped up and began giving ideas and opinions about who did what to whom to get the war started. The American government couldn't keep their story straight, and only fueled the fire, but not enough to push then President Bush out of office. Support was fleeing, and the sense of legitimacy was gone. Few wanted the war anymore, and less could see it as a winnable endeavour. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone on longer than both the World Wars and Korea, and seem to be approaching closer to that of Vietnam in terms of time. People can't see it ending. The public believes that we would have to be there for an unacceptably long time before any real progress has been made. But we're still there....
No soldier could ever truly believe that withdrawing from the conflict is a good thing. Once placed in harms way it is up to the man on the ground to win at that point, because it's his life that's at stake, and not some ideal which the governments would have people at home believe. Each man and woman who chooses to serve have reasons which are many, but likely at the core have some similarity. Soldiers don't choose to go to war, but governments choose to send soldiers. The Armed Forces carry out the mandates of the government that the people elect to power. The will of a nation for which the military works towards is an idea, a path fraught with terrible heartache made of cold stones atop dead bones of long lost brothers and sisters that each soldier must walk through a rainstorm of tears in order to see the task through.
Soldiers carry on because we would not want to shirk our duties to those who went before, and to whom we are willing to share the cost.
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