I wish today were only Armistice Day. . .

But since we've added more wars and more soldiers to our national history, I desire to honor all vets today.

Wilfred Owen, a soldier, poet, and victim of WWI wrote this poem:

Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Wilfred Owen

Pasted from <http://www.poemtree.com/poems/ParableOfTheOldMan.htm>


Soldiers sacrifice themselves both in death and life. Their willingness to do so in a world that operates on a violence paradigm puts a serious moral burden on anyone who commits soldiers to combat.