If we really want to honor those whom our country has sent to war, we should honor their suffering, which usually goes on long after they’ve returned from the Killing fields. And we should mourn the lives that they destroyed in what is usually a false and evil cause, as in Vietnam and Iraq. And we should do a much better job of caring for them once they’ve returned to us, providing the treatment and care and training that they need, instead of the almost-invariably shameful conditions that exist in the institutions that we’ve set up for them to stay in if they need such shelter and therapy and if they have nowhere else to go for them.

“AGAINST WAR”

from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (tranlated by Ursula K. LeGuin

Even the best weapon

is an unhappy tool,

hateful to living things.

So the follower of the Way

stays away from it.

–

Weapons are unhappy tools,

not chosen by thoughtful people,

to be used only when there is no choice,

and with a calm, still mind,

without enjoyment.

To enjoy using weapons

is to enjoy killing people,

and to enjoy killing people

is to lose your share in the common good.

–

It is right that the murder of many people

be mourned and lamented.

It is right that a victor in war

be received with funeral ceremonies.