Many eyes betray the words their mouths are forced to speak.
Many faces display the conflict such chants raise within their hearts.
These scenes cause my thoughts to race back to somber accounts of the atrocities that occurred at what came to be known as the My Lai Massacre. With sickened heart I read the details and was left to ponder why. Merely repeating the truism that war is hell was not enough. Somehow the tragic events and circumstances of war had successfully removed or deeply buried the simple, powerful, essential element of compassion. We are warriors and many bluntly characterize our mission as killing people and breaking things.