Our Canadian Military-Are you an Idiot?

I have just had another complaint about my, "We Support Our Troops!" sign on my balcony.  Some snot nosed punk teen has told me that, "Armies Propogate War."

As my son is going to the Canadian Military this week to apply for MP I have mixed reactions.

My first reaction when he told me he was thinking of joining the military is the same one I had when I drove Yvonne to the Airport and she left for Bosnia?  Afghanastan? 

It's the Mother's All Out Panic.  I want to drug him and hide him in the basement.  No, I will not let my son go to War.  I wanted to lock Yvonne in the basement.  People die in war.  Soldier try. 

I can still remember standing in the airport lobby while the troops said their goodbye's that day and lined up to go.  I wanted to go along every person in line and shake their hand or hug them.  I wanted them all to come back.  I wanted them all not to go.  I wanted to ask them if they were idiots for signing up to go to a place where people are actively trying to kill you?

I wouldn't have stopped them if I could.

The image I can't get out of my mind is of a young man, (a boy really) who was holding his crying girlfriend in his arms.  He wasn't crying.  She was.  She clung to him like she was trying to crawl into his skin.  He had a look of peace on his face and he was smelling her hair.  That's what killed me. 

He looked like he was making sure he would never forget the feel of her in his arms, the touch of her skin and the smell of her hair.  I realized with a cold shiver down my back that he was making sure he would have something to hold onto when the world went crazy.

I knew that some time in the near future this boy would be under fire, crouched in the dirt, fighting for his life and if he never made it home, his last thought would have been the smell of her hair.  It broke my heart.

I knew at that moment I had to let Yvonne go.  I had to write her lots of letters while she was over there.  I had to support her in any way I could.  This boy is willing to give his life.  His life!!!!  He knew he was getting on a plane and there was a good chance he wasn't going to come home.

He might never mow the lawn on Sunday.  He might never read his kids a story goodnight.  He might never have the life that I live everyday.  This boy was willing to give up the taste of chocolate, his mother's hug, his father's smile. 

This boy was willing to give it all for the smell of her hair.

He knew what we all should know. 

A sense of duty. 

Doesn't sound like much does it.  Duty?  It's a little word but it encompasses so much.

Our Military does this everyday.  Thousands of men and women get on planes, boats, trucks and they go where people are going to kill them so that we have these things.  Even if it means they have to give them up for us.

What do we give them back?

So I really believe the bumper sticker I quoted to the snot nosed kid, "If you are not behind our Canadian Military...Get in front."