As the guns fell silent, the shells ceased their dreadful whistle, and the clouds of gas drifted into a memory, survivors from both sides of a brutal conflict emerged. They walked across territory littered with their comrades, some having fell four years prior in what was the war to end all wars. They shook hands, the allies marveled at the state of their German foe, and the Germans marveling all the same. Despite the joy expressed by the fighting man that the Great War had ceased to drain them and destroy them, war would continue, as it had, with ever increasing and silent dangers.
The 21st Century brought a sincere desire for peace. As the world looked back on a thousand years of history, conflict, bloodshed, toil, and suffering, we were determined to try and shape a new future. Yet embroiled we still are, and embattled we will be, through a time that will outlast us, our children, and their children. War is with us now, though distant to many. In the dark, dangerous, places of the world, men and women still struggle to fight for what they believe in as the conflict around them draws controversy, discredit, and praise from society.
When the rhetoric, the hate, the love, the sorrow that our society projects on our conflict is brushed aside, there are, thousands of miles away in a hostile land, men and women struggling to survive and wondering if today will be their last. There is nothing they can do to determine if the hunter has the hunted in his sights. If the bullet will leave the barrel, follow it’s path, and penetrate their armor. Fate determines the course of life and death and fate knows no names. It is a story all too familiar to the men and women who suffered in the War to End All Wars and to those who now struggle to survive the menace of modern conflict.
They were sent to distant lands, fought against their fellow-man, and brought home scars not visible to any eye. The sound of fireworks harmlessly lit by children causes them to stir, dreadful scenes awaken them in the night. The memories of friends, once whole and full of life, struck down and ended in an instant. The last moment of a young man’s life, wondering what his parents will think. We ask them to stop, we ask them to go, we ask them to desert, to fight. We ask them to remember, to forget. What we need to ask them is if there is anything we can do to express our thanks. Such a simple expression is enough to ease the hail of mortars, the cold and unforgiving terrain, and the sleepless nights of those that suffered because of the inhumanity of mankind.







