To Veterans and Soldiers:

Thank you for your effort.   While you and your peers are praised back home for your courage, understand that making peace takes courage and risk also.   Unfortunately there has been too little effort to make peace in the world, so we continue making war.  Soldiers can beat back an enemy to a truce, but they haven't brought genuine peace in 5000 years of war.  Unfortunately, you are caught in this endless cycle of war that ends up creating more hate and desire for revenge. 

People who desperately want to bring peace to the world believe that you are simply following the path of history like you follow orders, and are in a very difficult position that you do not yet understand deep enough.  Politicians are not going to stop this cycle—they are trapped in it as well.  There will be no end to war until soldiers are no longer willing to fight.  If the soldiers of Germany honestly understood truth, they would have defeated Hitler without firing a single shot.  

If you are Christian, you should know that in His Sermons on the Mount and Plains, Jesus changed the criterion of sin.  The sins of murder, adultery, and theft in the Ten Commandments of the Jews, were revised from the act of personally performing the sin, to one of intending to commit the act.   But you should also know that the God of Jesus forgives everyone who asks-- even you if you have broken his special commandment to "Love your enemies" and hate and kill one of them.  This is the beautiful faith that all the Christian denominations teach, but ultimately it is in the very definition of forgiveness that brings peace.  Having peace is not dependent on Jesus, but on you and me as a society.  Jesus taught us how to make peace, but he also told us that it would not be easy.  He willingly gave his life for us without a fight and with forgiveness for his killers among the last words on his lips.  Won't you do the same?  --Not just for your country, but for his love of all men and nations.  Matthew 24, 25 & 28.

If you do not believe in Jesus, this is no attempt to "convert" you.  but understand that if the world will ever rise above it's endless cycle of war, it will not occur by mankind's ability to dream up ever more powerful weapons.  Jesus' teaching, with over 2 billion followers today, has allowed mankind to progress orderly to its current state, but now we must reinterpret it in the light of terrible new weapons that can cause the suicide of mankind.  We all know that this cycle, which has been going on for the entire civilization of mankind, must end for our children’s children’s sake.  Now that we understand these fundamentals of science and recognize the limits of the earth, it is up to us to have the genuine courage to see what we must give in our generation for their survival.

Early Roman soldiers who wanted to leave the service were put to death, but fortunately mankind has developed its morals so that you can leave without such serious penalty.  As you leave, do so with both confidence and humility.  Veterans, please don't bask in glory like a winning athlete-- a war is not a glorious game but a question of life for your enemies and comrades who are caught up in powers bigger than you or they and our politicians are.  Life is much more sacred than any competition.  And as you talk about your experience, point out the horrors and suffering of war to stress how urgently the world needs to end all wars. 

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