Lysa Strata

By Diana the Valkyrie (with thanks to Aristophanes)

"With your guns and drums and drums and guns"


They brought my sister Joanna to my home. They couldn't leave her
at hers, she wouldn't be able to cope.

Because Joanna was missing a leg.

Oh, they'd given her a plastic leg, but she couldn't walk yet, and
even needed help getting into or out of her wheelchair, or her bed.
And they gave her a medal, as if losing your leg was a fine and
noble thing.

Because Joanna was a veteran.

And I heard her crying sometimes - she was mourning her lost leg,
and that she'd be a cripple for the rest of her life, and she was
in constant pain, pain in her missing leg, and they didn't give
her any more treatment.

Because Joanna was no use to them any more.

And I know that this is happening all over the country. I know,
because there are published figures. I was told by people that Joanna
was lucky, she could have been killed. She could have lost both legs.
She could have ... I don't want to hear this.

Lucky?

And it went on and on. My country keeps getting involved in
wars. It's not that we're getting invaded and have to fight for
our freedom - it's that we invade other countries, and they have to
fight for their freedom. Why do we do it? I've heard it's because
of oil, I've heard it's because of regime change, I've heard that
it's because of communism. But I don't think it's any of those. We
do it because we've always done it, we think "my country right or
wrong", we do it because the old men in power aren't risking their
own precious skins, they're sending out the young men and women.

Like Joanna.

And they tell all the old lies. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria
mori."  It is sweet and honourable to die for your country. No,
it isn't. Nor is it sweet to lose a leg. Nor is it sweet to travel
to a far-away country and kill the people there. And we don't even
win these wars.  We've been coming second in every war we start,
for the last 60 years.  Because the boys and girls that we send out
to fight, know that there are no good reasons for it, and they do
as they're ordered, but without enthusiasm. Whereas their opponents
know exactly what they're fighting for, and do so with huge zeal.

The sight of Joanna made me weep for her, my sister, and made me
angry that this was still going on. But what can a woman do?

As it turns out - a lot.

Not me alone. But I knew that I wasn't alone, that every women
had a father, brother or son ... or daughter ... in the military,
and it was a constant worry that they'd be sent home in a box.
I talked with my friends, women I knew from the school run. Because
I had an idea. We would organise into a union, and we'd go on strike.

We'd done something similar before - prohibition. From 1900,
the Women's Temperance Union had campaigned against the sale of
alcohol, and in the roaring twenties, their dreams were realised
in the change in the laws. Women have power, we just need to use it.

Strike? Yes. No sex until our old men politicians ended their
stupid practice of going to war, and losing. There were only a
couple of dozen of us at first, but soon the local papers heard
about it (we told them), and then the national media got hold of it
(we told them too).

One of the many things that women are better at than men, is
communication.  And we communicated the heck out of this. We got
onto radio, we got onto TV. We travelled the country, recruiting for
women to join our crusade against the Forever War. Because that's
what we called it.  The Forever War went on and on, only the enemies
changed. One year it was Eurasia, the next it was Eastasia. The
alliances changed, the enemies changed but the Forever War went on
... for ever. No country was safe from being declared "part of the
axis of evil" - followed by a war.


Read the rest of the story on https://www.amysconquest.com