The Wonder of War — STEVEN HARDESTY

I am not a Hollywood celebrity or social media influencer so my opinion on war means nothing. But I am a combat veteran and will speak out in my novels even though TikTok has no interest. And I say war is a wonderful thing.

In the antique meaning of the word – full of wonders horrific and a rare few that are grand.

There is an over-plenty of war right now and I hate all of it. I’ve stood there in the dragon’s hot breath and testify that it’s foul stuff. But it is what comes after the dragon has swept past that I want to talk about. Because that’s the hardest part of war.

I mean what happens to you and me after war.

Yes, some wars have to be fought – for Americans, that’s 1861 and 1941. The U.S. Civil War and World War II were medicine to purge evil. Those wars were worth fighting. Just too bad we did not apply better preventive medicine.

But even after a “good” war the misery remains – ruined lives, ruined hopes, ruined dreams, wrecked families, orphaned children, spoiled fields and factories, poisoned harvests and rivers. You and me struggling wretched through long nights wondering why we did what we did and why we were not clever enough or humane enough to trek a different trail.

That’s the story of Poisoned Hearts, a novel about the aftereffects of the wonderful Vietnam war. It’s where I get to say – even though I’m not a celebrity influencer – what too many combat veterans experience in the dread time after war and what their families experience with them.

There is a very big war going on now. It will not end when it ends. No war ever does. This war, no matter who wins, will ricochet through all the decades ahead. The twisting misery it inflicts today will not stop. War poisons hearts. We all are being poisoned now.

We have to stop this war and chain up the dragon to prevent another. Or we all become combat veterans unable to sleep in grim night.