After All— On the Folly of War

After all the wars are over,
And all the battles won,
After all the blood’s been spilt,
From here to kingdom come,

Do you think it really mattered
In the larger scheme of things
That this nation took the prize
Or that one got no rings?

So what if one lasts longer
Outlasting all their foes
While another bites the dust
And sooner tastes the woes.

All empires rise and fall
Not one endures forever
Every nation has a life span
Despite plans and best endeavors.

After all the coffins come home
And all the widows cry
And all the pyrrhic victories,
Did you ever wonder why?

Perhaps it would be better
If we didn’t play war games
Perhaps we would be wiser
If we loved our enemies the same

Perhaps there’d be less waste
Less sorrow and less loss
Perhaps there’d be less anger
Less suffering, less cost.

Perhaps we might more nearly
Follow the Father’s call
And be a bit more Christ-like,
Like the Lamb who rules it all.

Perhaps it would be better
if we finally heard the call
to beat swords into plowshares,
And ceased the madness, after all.

—–

To our President, who got us out of two pointless, undeclared, unjustifiable, costly wars.

In my lifetime, we have not fought in one single war that was a declared war, or met the Geneva conventions for a justifiable war. Not one. BW3