I am sure it would appear, judging by the images and ideas I share, that I love war. That I glorify and aggrandize the bloody struggles over centuries that have cost millions of lives.

I do not love war. I do not love the need for a perpetually standing military in every nation of the world. I do not understand how these global battles ever justify the theft of our best and brightest men and women. But it is a reality that has existed since the first human learned survival from the creatures who dominated an ancient landscape.

But humans continued to evolve and survival became a convoluted and muddied subject. What is survival? What rights are humans actually entitled to? Tribes began warring over territory, which supported their survival. Hunting grounds, breeding partners, water and other natural resources - wars have been fought over all of them.

It’s the same today on much larger scale. If the things we need to live as we are accustomed are under threat, and negotiation or reason do not work, we respond with violence. If a force exists that would erase us from history, it must be met with greater force. This response isn’t limited to any race or culture. It’s universal.

And without war, our landscape would look completely different today. Whether you would argue that human civilization would have been better or worse without violent interventions in the past makes no difference, but understanding the rippling impacts of war throughout the centuries and across the globe is critical to an appreciation of where you are right now, today. Where you are housed (or perhaps not), what you eat, or cannot, where you go or don’t… these things have all been determined, on some level, by wars fought in the past.

Without the men who disembarked on the 6th of June toward the beaches of Normandy, the tide of Nazi power may have not been turned back as it swept relentlessly to the west. Without a small band of courageous B25 Bombers and an incursion into Japan, Pearl Harbor might have only been the beginning of a complete bloodborne reformation of the United States.

I do not love war. I have never fought in a battle, nor do I know the glory of returning victorious with a Band of Brothers. I will never know the inconsolable grief of surviving combat when my comrades didn’t. But I do know, with ardent certainty, that any privilege I have in this life, any comfort, any opportunity, is due in large part to the men and women who have paid the ultimate price for it.

Unstormed beaches in France might have left a different legacy. If you haven’t watched Man in the High Castle for a glimpse of this alternate reality, I’d encourage it. If you haven’t watched the Handmaid’s Tale to see a world where evil encroaches without violent opposition, I’d encourage you to.

War is hell. The losses are not acceptable, but even more so if we take them for granted and do not pay homage to the sacrifices that give us our liberties. It is up to us to redefine survival and what validates the delivery of our lambs to the slaughter. It is also our responsibility to understand the real threats to our very existence and support appropriate response. Those in office who decide these things are in theory, the ones we chose, and must be held accountable.