A truly different (though not unshared) vision!

I Support the Troops
By Bill Shein / Berkshire Eagle

I SUPPORT the troops by remembering -- every day -- that we are at war.
I support the troops by crying at the loss of their young lives, the pain suffered by their families, and the indefensible choices my government has made.
I support the troops not by cheering the war they've been sent to wage, or celebrating the battles they've won, but instead, by joining the effort to bring them home now.
I support the troops by asking why a senior Pentagon official appeared before Congress and didn't know the number of soldiers who had lost their lives.
I support the troops by imagining a day when chants of "USA! USA!" interrupt speeches about ending poverty and hunger, not those that boast of America's ability to rain fire onto human beings.
I support the troops by embracing Gandhi's dictum, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
I support the troops by ridiculing the notion that anyone can build a "culture of life" here at home while spreading death and destruction abroad.
I support the troops by fighting for quality public schools and a living wage, so the military is no longer the career of last resort for America's most vulnerable.
I support the troops by remembering 9/11 -- watching from my bedroom window as smoke rose from the Pentagon, and then, in the days and weeks afterwards, weeping over heartbreaking stories of children left without parents.
I support the troops by asking which "moral value" is on display when we avenge the horrific murder of 3,000 innocents by killing 100,000 more.
I support the troops by rejecting the morality of a "pre-emptive war" that turns foreign soil into a graveyard for innocent foreign civilians -- a policy whose adherents improperly claim is a legal, moral and legitimate alternative to "fighting the enemy here at home."
I support the troops by denouncing wartime "journalism" provided by embedded reporters, retired generals and partisan spinners, especially when it ignores the voices of those with the hope and idealism to suggest a better way.
I support the troops by abhorring violence against nations, people, animals and the environment -- a belief system approaching its 2,000th birthday. Because you don't have to be a Christian to know what Jesus would do.
I support the troops by protesting the new language of war, which labels the death of innocent children as "collateral damage"; the accidental murder of their mothers "regrettable"; the killing of journalists who seek the truth "unfortunate"; the slaughter of the wounded as a "mop-up operation"; and that reduces human beings to "targets" to be "destroyed."
I support the troops with regret -- that we train them to kill, send them to war, and then leave them to struggle throughout life with searing memories of battlefield horrors. Because while the war makers do their best to dehumanize war, they can't dehumanize the human beings they send to fight it.
And as we begin our holiday season, I support the troops by spreading the story of the week-long Christmas Truce of 1914, when soldiers from Germany, France, England and Belgium spontaneously decided not to fight and kill. Instead, they put down their weapons, climbed out of their trenches and met -- on common ground -- to share food and cigars and games of soccer. They exchanged photos of sons and daughters and wives, of a life beyond the battlefield where they could easily be neighbors sharing a meal or watching a quiet sunset.
Incredibly, they befriended those whom their governments had demanded they kill. From that brief and remarkable moment, we know that peace is possible -- and inevitable -- as soon as human beings have the courage to say,
"Enough!"
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Bill Shein's column, "Reason Gone Mad," appears in the Berkshire Eagle newspaper (and soon at reasongonemad.com)
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© Copyright 2004, Bill SheinAll rights reserved.