War affect all of us too much, it leaves us speechless. I don’t feel like writng about, as it gives pain, but same time, we can’t ignore it as talking against the war is necessary.

Long back  I got a letter from Joop Bersee, a poet friend who sent me a poem (even though he says this is not a poem). I again feel a cry against war in those lines. Joop Bersee gave me this piece only for reading, not for publication.

But I want my readers to read these lines and feel the pain… the pain of a number of people who suffer on account of wars, directly and indirectly, along with a number of people in my country who were forced to leave their places because of a hidden war.

Let us read Joop’s poem was very long, I removed a part of it  and present as  our voice this time-

“Why I Continue to Disbelieve in the War”

Because war is a lie.

Because this war is based on a lie, as we all know.

Because people want democracy but not the democracy of president

Because the president  is a liar.

Because the ‘most powerful man in the world’ is a liar.

Because it is all about oil.

Because certain people get rich because of this war.

Because his friends get rich because of this war.

Because innocent people are being killed.

Because fathers and mothers want their children to have a life.

Because fathers and mothers don’t want their children to die a heroic death.

Because a friend lying dead in a coffin is not what your dear ones want to see.

Because war creates more war.

Because war creates extremism.

Because extremism kills.

Because killing is wrong.

Because being proud of the left leg and a few fingers of your son in a coffin killed in combat doesn’t make sense.

Because killing to make this planet a safer place is a lie.

Because the wounds of Vietnam are still raw.

Because there are still dead soldiers in Vietnam waiting in vain for peace and affection.

Because many of those killed were literally blasted to pieces by bombing.

Because people are still being killed today in Vietnam by unexploded ordinance, particularly cluster bomblets.

Because of the 2800+ soldiers killed in Iraq.

Because killing your own people is a crime.

Because humiliating people is a crime.

Because revenge is not an option.

Because revenge is no answer.

Because life is more precious than death.

Because those killed were killed because of the lie of the liar of all liars.

Because the world has become a more dangerous place.

Because more people will get killed; it might even be you, thanks to a president who believes.

Because the lives of mothers and fathers are destroyed.

Because children are now without a father.

Because a father never had a chance when they sent him there.

Because the mother never had a chance when they sent her there.

Because no matter what they say, we will never run out of tears.

Because we will cry an ocean and we have no ark.

Because people killed by a lie will never return.

Because their tombs will always talk to us.

Because a soldier returns home and becomes a human being again.

Because there won’t be enough doctors and money to treat all the soldiers with trauma’s.

Because some soldiers will become drug addicts, thieves, murderers because they were told to kill.

Because children will ask us why?

Because we have to tell our children a lie.

Because those who leave in the name of democracy return without a future.

Because no future starts with war.

Because there are already so many war graves.

Because of all the names of those who died so far.

Names of Americans.

Because of the names of those who are still alive at this precise moment in time

but will be dead within ten minutes by a roadside bomb or suicide bomber.

Because there is no one who can say anything positive about this war without feeling a murderer deep inside.

Because we are afraid to dig inside ourselves and see what we are really like, in the name of freedom.

Because soldiers don’t have the freedom to stop killing.

Because they are told to kill.

Because the flag on a coffin doesn’t hide its contents.

Because a flag in a mother’s arms looks ugly.

Because the emptiness eats and eats a bigger hole, never to be filled with alcohol.

Because we could have had grandchildren.

Because there are too many people who understand exactly what it is to lose a child.

Because the pharmaceutiocal industry is rich as it is. 15

Because your war will never bring stability.

Because democracy has never been a firing squad.

Because people are tired of the newspaper articles and their photographs with remains.

Because all what remains is a big hole in the ground to be filled with the dead in the name of lies.

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So we must say- We hate War

Rati Saxena