Friday 4 August 2017

August 4, 2017 Chautauqua

 
Beth's Ponderings

   What side are you on?  Are you sure?  Do you even know?

   There as been a lot, and I mean a LOT of media coverage of late surrounding Omar Khadr, who, let me remind you, is a Canadian citizen who, as a minor, ended up in a war situation and survived.  Truly, that is his ONLY crime - he survived the war.

   Now, no matter what your personal feelings are about him and his situation, I would also like to remind you that there was a war going on, and Omar was fighting for the wrong side...or was he?

   That is where things get tricky, and we don’t like to admit that life isn’t as black and white as we portray it, because that REALLY shakes up our sense of right and wrong.

   A war means there are two (at least) sides fighting each other.  So who is the enemy?  We say it was the other side.  But….

   Not so fast.  The Canadians, Americans, and British were not fighting on home soil, so they were foreigners.  We were interlopers in a conflict that was already in progress.  Plus, how many local civilians did our armies end up killing, even by accident, because it was a war situation? 

   Hmmmm, that almost sounds like it could be a definition of an enemy, doesn’t it?  Because it doesn’t matter what side the soldiers are fighting for, or what justifications are used (fighting to impose our values on others doesn’t mean our values are right, or are even wanted by others), to a local civilian, the soldiers are the enemy if they endanger the civilian’s life, the lives of family and neighbours, home, and livelihood.

   In a war situation, which is horrific beyond belief, there are too many casualties, and untold destruction, caused by both sides.  Soldiers on all sides are merely doing their job, and fighting as they are trained to do.  One side is no more completely innocent than the other side is completely guilty.

   So, either EVERY single soldier, of every rank, on BOTH sides is punished because they are ALL guilty of fighting, or...none are. 


   Because, at the end of the day, there are no winners in a war.

Beth


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