The Ultimate Cost of Conflict

I find myself standing at the edge of a grave of a boy who was younger than I am when he died. Where? In a country that was not his own.

He was one of the lucky ones - he was remembered. An identifiable body among the field.

A visit to any cemetery provokes thoughts - of life, death, and what lies ahead. But there is nothing quite like looking down upon the tomb of an unknown soldier - his only identity that of his nation and the ideals he sought to defend - and pondering the ultimate cost of when powerful men send people to war. The number of "tombs of an unknown soldier" located around the world serves as a reminder that not all men died for valor. The men buried in the cemetery shown in the image above were not Cretan, they were primarily German. But their final resting place lies on the hills nearby the airstrip they were commanded to defend during the second World War.

Why is it that we are willing to go to such ends to defend what we believe in? Is it a measure of the strength of our political polarization process? Or perhaps a sense of tribalism - we want so much to belong that we will die with our brothers and sisters to do so. I don’t know the answer - and part of me is frightened to ever be put in the position of finding out. What I do know is this - those men, men with the unpredictability of their entire lives ahead of them, are dead. They died for their country, and returned to the dust we come from. I can’t help but wonder if, in their final moments, they believed it was worth it.