(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

There are always reasons for war, some more noble and righteous than others. But taken to its lowest common denominator, people you don’t know are trying to kill you, and you are doing your best to kill them first.

War isn’t something you can get your head around easily. Heartbreaking isn’t a big enough word. Almost every month of my life - more than 71 years - someone’s been fighting somewhere…with innocent and not-so-innocent people dying…and often things are no better for it.

Today - as you read this very sentence - someone is dying in Ukraine. It might be a child’s beloved “dido” or “baba”…a starving mother trying to feed her child…or that innocent child clutching her doll.

Another sentence…another death. This one might well be a Ukrainian soldier…in the uniform of his country but a few weeks…or the Russian soldier who was lied to by superiors and whose last living act was firing a round at a priority target…trying to kill a faceless enemy.

We see more of the terror and death of war than ever…millions of Ukrainians’ smart phones deliver almost instantly what war really looks like. We cannot and should not look away from the torn and bloodied bodies…the rubble that was once schools and hospitals and homes.

Of course, the Russian soldiers who are dying - mostly under-25-year-old conscripts - were never told of an invasion…and they have no smart phones. Most thought the were simply going on training exercises in Belarus or near the Crimean border. Now, captured Russians use Ukrainian phones to call their mothers. War’s terror and fear stretch all the way from Ukraine to Kazan and Moscow and hundreds of small Russian villages.

I pity the Russians who were lied to…my government lied about Vietnam a half century ago when I was not yet 21. There is, of course, a price for such betrayal…anger, distrust…a wariness about what old men in government who often never fought but send their nation’s youth to die in battles that might or might not make sense. Remember, hardly any of the Cabinet members and advisors surrounding President Nixon ever served in the military.

After four years in service, I flew back to the U.S. on June 3, 1973, arriving at Newark International Airport in New Jersey wearing my Air Force summer khaki uniform. Walking down the concourse from my arrival gate toward the baggage claim in the terminal, people jeered…some spat at me. No one said “Thank you for you service” or likely thought it.

I found a men’s room, tore off my shirt with its ribbons and metals and threw it in the trash…then my blue flight cap…then my blue belt with polished buckle. In khaki pants and a white t-shirt, I claimed my luggage…unfortunately an olive drab duffle with my name and U.S. Air Force in prominent three-inch tall blue letters.

I stayed overnight in an airport hotel and after buying a suitcase and throwing away the duffle, I packed and flew home to Florida in civilian clothes. A few months later, as a member of “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” I protested the war…and along with millions of Americans…helped end the Vietnam War. So, I feel a certain empathy…even for Russian soldiers.

No one really wins in wars like that being waged in Ukraine…not without paying a heavy, heavy price. Certainly, not Ukrainian civilians…the innocent women, children and elderly whose lives are taken with brutality. Not Putin…not Russian soldiers who will never no a moment’s peace in their occupation. Not even the brave Ukrainians who defend their homeland…who will save freedom and democracy…but lose so much doing it. A heavy price, indeed.

Wars for the past 75 years have a distinctly different feel with the proliferation of nuclear weapons…today there are more than 3,750 active warheads…and more than 10,000 inactive warheads that can be re-assembled easily. Who’s to say when an unhinged leader - a Putin…a Trump - some other autocrat who’d rather take everyone down if they might lose - would launch a nuclear holocaust.

And, yet, we can never stand by and let tyrannical leaders simply have their ways…robbing people of freedom and happiness. We should all do whatever we can to ease the suffering of those fighting this war…until the next one.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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