Day Two

War is war. It is cruel, bloody, and useless. People like Captain Mendoza, Esteban, Juan, and the Whistler think that war is needed to create peace, but that’s nonsense. This is the 43rd war, 42 wars have been fought here for the same reasons, but none resolved the problems. I don’t think there will be peace and freedom here if we don’t find some kind of compromise. The Loyalists will always be against the Revolutionaries, that’s for sure, but how is that fair for us, the farmers? War just makes the richest richer and the poorest poorer. It doesn’t help if those few rich people could bathe in money, if the majority, which are the farmers, are close to starvation! The problem is that the children are mostly affected by all this, even Captain Mendoza knows that, and Lolo and Ignacio have always known that. They agree with me that war is useless. Even if we win, the revolutionaries will still be the revolutionaries who fight against the loyalists; the only change would be that the revolutionary army would be in control, not the loyalist army. Then a few years later, the loyalists will want to gain control again, and so on, this was is never ending. Then we poor people would be forced to join the army again more people will die and there will still not be peace and freedom. Our AK-47’s are our toys, and killing is the game. I realized I’m not like most people; most people here seem to think what we are doing is right and they even seem to be enjoying themselves. But as Captain Mendoza said, “this country has a volcano for a mother, a jaguar for a father. The children suffer. We must... try.”