For Love of Country
Historians Will and Ariel Durant wrote in The Lessons of History: “In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 had seen no war.†In the 42 years since the book’s publication, we have not added any numbers to the peace side of the tally.
But these are statistics. History is not just about the leaders who send their youth off to battle but about the civilians affected by war and those who are doing the fighting.
My photo essay “For Love of Country†is about two hundred of them, wounded servicemen and women who came together at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in May of 2010 to participate in the inaugural Warrior Games. These Paralympic events are part of an effort to inspire recovery, build camaraderie, and promote new opportunities for growth and achievement.
A look at the participants reveals that IEDs (improvised explosive devices) have taken a particularly heavy toll. Medical advances have lowered the ratio of death from limb loss from earlier wars but the scars – both mental and physical – will remain long after the last shot of the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been fired.
Referring to Iraq in 2007, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated “It was worth the sacrifice.†Perhaps that judgment should be reserved for those who are doing the physical and mental sacrificing and for the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Mark Edward Harris