The Reality of War

I know about the reality of war. I served two tours in Vietnam. But that’s not where I gained war experience. In fact, I spent those war years in a legal office in the belly of an aircraft carrier. I killed no one and saw no one killed. I weep with those who did and then came back home not to ticker tape parades but to the jeers of hateful demonstrators.

I gained my war experience at home where the enemy is more deadly and more cunning than the Viet Cong. In this war the enemy is seldom seen. He has the ability, it seems, to get into the heads of his enemies and confound and confuse. He can turn combatants against each other. You seldom see his missiles coming or hear his footsteps in the night.

 Leave him alone and he doesn’t seem to notice you. Yet he honors no rules regarding noncombatants. In fact, he seems to relish injury and pain in the weak and innocent. He has no concept of fair fighting nor has he heard of the Geneva Convention. He fights fearlessly and relentlessly though his cause is lost and his defeat inevitable. 

He counts his victories less in broken bodies and rubble reduced buildings than in destroyed relationships and weakened spirits. He specializes in flashes of anger, cutting words, and haughty looks. He’s the master of unexplained “accidents,” malfunctioning appliances, and rot and decay. He loves the past with its bad memories, missed opportunities, and  hard to forget sins. He adores tongues that wag, feet that wander and hands that hurt. He hates the promise of the future and the opportunity of the present.

He doesn’t mind being pictured with a forked tail and a reddish complexion. He loves the media when it portrays Him an worthy opponent or, better yet, just a dark and menacing force. He doesn’t mind being depersonified, demonized, or deplored. He accepts with a sneer the adoration of the lost and smiles at being ignored by the masses.

He’s Satan and he’s real. He’s clever and he’s defeated. 

A war is raging around you. It exists whether you acknowledge it or not. You can be  a combatant, spectator or blind to it’s existence. But it controls your world, injures your family and robs your future.

You can shiver in fright or wallow in ignorance or you can gird your loins and fight.

It’s good to have options.

Consider them carefully and 

Be blessed.

Nick