Boxes

Isn't it time the British, Canadian, American and other so-called liberators left Afghanistan and stopped sacrificing our young, poor and barely educated for such dubious goals? Every soldier we send over is but another target and worse, additional inspiration for those who would kill in the name of religion, ideology or idiocy. The return ceremonies held in the UK for those who have fallen in battle in Afghanistan offer powerful moments of grief but are hijacked by those who would continue such shameless bloodshed. To what end?

It's time to look at other ways to persuade sister and brother citizens of the planet that we have great ideas and great ways. It's time to look at the colossal waste of human life and financial and planetary resources that mark this war (and all others). Educate, create jobs, tax banks and bankers, nurture our cultural lives. Stop the wars on people and planet.

Perhaps the poem says it better.

Boxes

The boys are coming home
In boxes red and blue

Finished all their killing
For God, me and you

Finished all their dying
For liberty, so true

Some of them are marching
Strutting the nation’s coup

Some of them just waiting
For the dole to see them through

We haven’t got a question
We haven’t got a clue

We see the gore of enemy
It lacks the royal hue

Stiff upper lip, soldier on
In search of glories new

The boys are coming home
In boxes red and blue

(22 June 2009, London)

What do you think?

For now.

Blackheath Canuck