Why?! I just don’t understand it! Why did my child have to die? Did s/her die alone? Did s/he suffer? What were his/her last words? Can’t you tell me something? Please! I need to know. I want to know. Isn’t there anything at all you can tell me?
That’s what I imagine I would say if notified that my child had died in war. Obviously, our family having had a child die, I am probably more sensitive to this scene than perhaps others might be. I understand that. But I can’t help wondering about the emotions that military families (world-wide) go through upon experiencing this kind of death. It seems, at least to me, only natural that they would be almost overwhelmed with frustration. Wouldn’t it be easy to understand? How could you not have sympathy for those parents? They must be angry that their child might be alive had some men not made decisions that resulted in war.
Today marks 10 years that we have been fighting in Afghanistan. It so happens that my most recent reading deals somewhat indirectly with war. I’m learning a little about the international law of war; the “kinds” of war; various reasons for which a war has been fought (whether formally declared or not0, etc. These two things have played at the back of my mind all day. I began to wonder how many families, all over the world, for hundreds and hundreds of years have received notification of a child’s death during war? And how many of those deaths were truly necessary? Meaning how many were necessary because of an attack, resulting in a region or country having to defend itself? And I wonder how many innocent, non-military people, have died over those same years? Especially children, who know nothing about anything; they are/were just thinking about getting to play or do some other fun activity.
I doubt there is a way to get that kind of number. And I’m not at all sure I would want to know, anyway. But, I did, totally unexpectedly, just the other day, read a list of our country’s “record” on war or military action. I was shocked at just how long the list was.
ü Revolutionary War 1775-1783
ü Numerous Indian wars 1790-1890 (Yes, almost 100 years!)
ü Naval operations against France 1798-1801
ü War of 1812 1812-1815
ü The Mexican-American War 1846-1858
ü The American Civil War 1861-1865
ü Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii 1887
ü The Spanish-American War 1898-1902
ü The Boxer Rebellion 1900-1901
ü The Philippine-American War 1899-1913
ü Occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico 1914
ü The Pershing Expedition into Mexico 1916
ü World War I 1917-1919
ü World War II 1941-1945
ü Conflict in Korea 1950-1953
ü The Vietnam “War” 1963-1974
ü Invasion of Lebanon 1982
ü Invasion of Grenada 1983
ü Invasion of Libya 1986
ü Invasion of Panama 1989
ü Invasion of Iraq 1990-1991
ü Invasion of Somalia 1991
ü Afghanistan 2001-present
ü Iraq 2003-present
Not mentioned above is a constant state of alert during the “Cold War”, mid-1940’s to early 1990’s. Also not listed is the “War on Terrorism” that we speak of. That’s a lot of war over a lot of years. The number of years we have not been at war or involved in military conflict is far less than the years we have been so engaged. I’ll let you count for yourself. I’m still thinking about someone’s child being killed, whether part of a war/conflict or an innocent civilian.
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