War and Children

A fifteen year old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, cries after being captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3, 1945.   My son is 15 years old.  I cannot imagine him going into combat.  Thank God that this young man lived.  But how many died?  How many were maimed?  How many lost their sight, hearing, legs or testicles?  And for what purpose?  I never served in the armed forces, but I have tremendous respect for those that did.  My father lost his cousin in WWII.  He was 20, and was killed 2 weeks after arriving in France.   It is my observation that the men who have seen real combat, and seen death close up, seek to avoid war the most.

Hear the words of one of our greatest warriors:

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.   There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.   War settles nothing.  When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

God have mercy.