Those who wish to start wars
Before they start them from their desks
need to listen to the inglorious horror stories of the veterans
Those veterans
Those amputees
Those doctors in military psych wards that treat people with PTSD.
They need to go to morgue and smell the dead
They need to be immersed in images of those shattered
Torn
Eviscerated
Decapitated
Tortured to death.
They need to experience all this
And know a small fraction of what war is…
And then they need to be taken to some barren place bereft of all life comforts
And beaten for days
Then brought back to life
Then maybe … feeling their scars for life
They can sit painfully
Horrified at a desk
And decide if men and women should be sent to be crippled
And die.
Hopefully,
If they have an ounce of humanity and empathy left in them,
They will weep as never before
As they make that horrible decision.
If they do not and cannot,
THEY should be the one’s to die in that moment.