Stray Thoughts on the War

By Lex, on Thu – July 14, 2005

I wonder how, many years from now, all of this will be remembered: How will those who fought for us remember those for whom they fought?

But especially: How will those who chose to stay on the sidelines of this fight remember it? And how will they think of themselves?

In World War II, the war of the “Greatest Generation,” people volunteered or were drafted and went off and fought. It was the unifying element of their time – people who did not go were either physically unfit or in a line of work considered critical to national defense. And to my certain knowledge, many of this latter group later on regretted it, the opportunity lost. Regretted too, perhaps, their survivor’s guilt. Four hundred thousand of their generation who answered the call did not come home alive.