Pray for peace
“One of the most striking revelations of that war was the age of the men who entered it. It has often been commonly said that great wars are planned by old men and fought by young men.” — Rev. E. W. Elstron, delivering an address to Civil War veterans in 1930.
I registered for Selective Service on January 23, 1991. It was a Wednesday. The Iraq army had invaded Kuwait the previous August.
The week before, on January 16, an American-led multi-nation coalition of ground and air forces invaded and worked to push the Iraqi army out of the country.
In their retreat they set fire to oil fields. Those fires burned for 10 months before the last one was extinguished.
I was 18 years old at the time and in my senior year of high school. As you can imagine there was all the patriotic fervor of the U.S. entering a righteous war to help liberate an allied nation. There was a spike in interest among my classmates about going into the military and we talked about the possibility of the war expanding and what it might mean for our future plans.
I remember the dusty smell of my hometown’s small post office. It was located in our half-hearted attempt at a downtown.
My mother was terrified. She knew the cost of war. My dad was serving in the Navy in Vietnam when my parents got married. Both my parents had lost classmates and friends in that confl ict. For many years she remained bitter about how my father and other veterans of his generation were treated.
At the time, I told my mom she was being foolish to worry about us. After all, at 18 you think you are invincible and will live forever. As you grow up, you realize that is a child’s fantasy.
Still, my mother worried every time a recruiter called our house to talk to my two older brothers or me. She would hover in the background to make sure we didn’t say anything that could sound like a promise or commitment. I would laugh about her worries.
Like most people, I have been closely watching the events taking place half a world away. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reminds us that wars of aggression and greed are not just things from history books, but remain very real.
Each morning I seek out reputable news organizations and read stories to stay abreast of what is going on. Like many I have been impressed with the bravery of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their homeland. Their unwillingness to bend a knee to a tyrant strikes a cord that would have resonated with the founding fathers of our own nation.
Yet, with each passing day I grow more afraid and more fully understand the fear my mother felt that January afternoon decades ago.
On Friday morning, members of the Taylor County Board held a moment of silence before their meeting in support of the people of Ukraine. In those moments and many times before and after, I offered my own prayer for an end to the violence and bloodshed and for peace to prevail.
There are those who feel America is not doing enough. There are those who call for America to get its hands dirty and for American troops to get involved.
For me, I see the faces of young men at sporting events. I know their names, their parent’s names, their hopes and their dreams. I fervently pray that they may see those dreams come to fruition and not be cut short on some muddy battlefield far from home.
Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.
