I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more devastation. War is hell. -- William Tecumseh Sherman, General, American Civil War

Yesterday I ended my piece with what can be a throwaway line. "War is hell" is easy to say, especially for somebody like me who experiences it only through words and pictures. Today a post to a discussion list I read happened to give the context, a graduation speech Sherman delivered at a Michigan school. 

Evidently he was so convinced of this position that he expressed it again at a different public appearance, this one in Ohio. "There is many a [boy] who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell," he said. "You must bear this warning voice to generations to come." But he also said, "War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all they want."

On a typical evening at our house Lynn does her homework till about nine o'clock. Then she uses Ron's computer to engage in the multiple online "instant message" conversations that have become the life blood of kids' communications. At 10:00 Ron and I usually watch whatever drama is on (we follow Third Watch, Law & Order, NYPD, ER, and The West Wing). As we settle in Lynn shuts down Ron's computer and withdraws to mine upstairs. 

Tonight, however, there was no fictional drama to watch, only the real one unfolding in southern Iraq. The "attack of opportunity" had begun slightly before the 48-hour deadline President Bush had issued to Saddam Hussein, and the president was scheduled to speak to the nation at 10:15. As the computer shut down, Lynn did not rise and leave the room. Instead, she swiveled the chair around. We three sat in a row and I wished, not for the first time, that she were still small enough to sit on my lap or to wedge herself in beside Ron  lengthwise on the couch. During the president's speech I stole glances at her and saw that her face was solemn, her focus intense. Later, I found her in the kitchen reading a news magazine article about the ordeal and recovery of Elizabeth Smart, the Utah teenager held for nine months by an apparently delusional drifter. 

I have not known Lynn to take an interest in things like this beyond what she can learn from the news being on in the background while she works at the computer. I felt both pride and sorrow. She's sophisticated enough and interested enough now to pursue information on her own. Oh that current events were not so grim.