To the editor:
One hundred years ago this month, British and German army commanders sent down orders that a truce on the battlefield must never happen again. Germans were told that they would be shot, the British would face court martial. “Again” referred to the Christmas truce of the year before, 1914, when fighting stopped on Belgium‘s Flanders field, some 30,000 British men were involved and 100 played soccer against Germans. Soldiers conversed, some clicked cameras and some exchanged small gifts. The 1915 order actually reinforced the same order on Christmas Day, 1914.
Reacting to this story makes one feel bipolar. It is so moving, happy, tearjerky and uplifting; then the aftermath is depressing and horrifying. After we witness a miracle as soldiers on both sides lay down arms, bury each other’s dead and pray together, we are suddenly dropped down, down, to face the reality of war. On Christmas Day a possibility of peace appears to be within their grasp. Not. The commanders are furious and immediately send out their orders.
The calls for “What would Jesus do?” always seem irrelevant, but this time maybe not. I wondered, “What would President Obama do?” and then wished I could ask my two younger brothers. The older of the two was a Marine officer and attended the war games in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The younger learned computer programming in the Air Force. He used the word, “foolishness,” often. While undergoing pancreatic cancer treatment, he was about to leave to have a port installed in his skin for chemo, when he said, “Let’s get this foolishness over with.”
More recently, a veteran reacted to my disappointment with the commanders’ reaction to the truce, “In six weeks of war college as an officer, I learned: People don’t count. The mission counts. Factories producing count. Money counts. People? Look around, they’re reproducing like crazy. Wars help reduce overpopulation.”
One may hesitate to argue with members of the military, active or veteran. But as I write, I think both my brothers would agree with me that war is a foolishness to end all foolishness.
