It is common to hear in our history classes, throughout our school lives, that country “X” won the war against country “Y”, or that in a certain war so-and-so or Cyclan won. But is it really true? What defines us as winners of a war? Is it possible for someone to win something in a war?
Starting with the last question, we can say that it is not possible for someone to win something in a war, on the contrary. Just get lost! Initially, we lost our peace, we started to live intense, tense, worrying days and nights, without the certainty that we will see the next sunset. We have lost the right to come and go, we have lost our right to decide what time to leave and what time to return to our homes. We lost friends, relatives, acquaintances, we lost our own life and we lost it in the worst way, because we stopped living it as we used to live.
We lost our freedom because curfews tell us that there won't be that meeting with friends at the end of the day, that nice conversation, cold beer, the exchange of looks between lovers, there won't be the dinner scheduled and awaited by for so long, we won't take the kids to amusement parks, or see them eating ice cream or cotton candy. We lost the opportunity to celebrate the success achieved, the completed birthday, the desired party and not even the dreamed wedding.
In a war there are no winners. What is there to celebrate in the death of an “enemy”? By the way, what convincing reasons are needed to define a similar person as an enemy? Each soldier killed is a tombstone of longing in the heart of another family. The pain of a mother from the West is not less than the pain of a mother from the East, nor is the cry of a black father more painful than that of a white father. Pain, suffering, crying, longing are interracial, stateless, without borders, they do not choose age, color, creed, race or sex.
The truth is that the war never showed us a winner, but the one who lost the least. What glory is there in commemorating the deaths of hundreds of thousands, or in destroying buildings and monuments, in displacing families who had only their home? In brutally separating people so close?
Incredibly, the greatest celebration is not when an adversary is captured, not when a city is taken, or when an army is annihilated, not even when the war is won. The party only happens when the war comes to an end and no matter which side, the celebration is received with equal joy. Even those who do not participate in it also rejoice at the good news.
For our reflection on the subject, let us remember Abraham Lincoln who once said, "There is no honorable way to kill, nor a gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its end."
Jardenilson Sarmento