Soldier's Cry

I will be the first in the entire world to admit that I am a pacifist and I don't stand behind the idea of war. I have yet to find any war that I can truly consider just. Most wars begin for foolish, selfish reasons in my opinion. It wasn't until this year that I found any reason to support the soldiers fighting in so many countries around the world.

I met an Irish soldier over the summer and saw him shortly before he deployed for Lebanon. More recently than that I was faced with the reality that someone I care about may have sent himself to Afghanistan. That truly terrified me. The night I found out about that, I heard a beautiful and heart breaking song called "A Soldier's Cry." And I cried. I may have gone beyond crying. It was a pretty horrifying sight I'm sure. One good thing about the song is it made me realize why I am losing friends to overseas and partially appreciate what they are fighting for.

A friend of mine has a brother posted in Afghanistan and his MSN name says something that is very insightful. "If you don't stand behind our soldiers, feel free to stand in front of them." As the number of deaths mount in the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, the amount of the support for our mostly pathetic armed forces mounts. When there is no evident reason to fight, no reason that we can support, we don't support the troops we send overseas. We do now though. We mourn the ones we have lost and pray for the ones we still have far away from us.

We don't always think of the reasons so many of the younger generation volunteer to take themselves away from their family and loved ones. Canada is such a multi-cultural country that sometimes we don't see it as a nation. But we really are. And that is what our soldiers are fighting for. To keep our nation proud and free. That is the cry they have and what they fight for while we stay safe. That is why we have to stand behind them, regardless of how we feel about war or the reason they are fighting at all. Because they are fighting for us.