Jack Burgess, retired teacher, military veteran, added his own poem in the comments section. Thank you, Jack!
How War Ends
by Jack Burgess, Sp3, US Army, 894th Tank Battalion
…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah
This is how war ends:
The guns stop everywhere.
Fifty-ton tanks roll to a stop,
war ships dock,
fighters and bombers come down from the sky,
and two moments of silence follow.
The war dead honored by the first,
the 2nd silence is for reflection,
for hearing frogs, and your own breath.
This is followed by a single voice,
then a murmur. Screwdrivers and crow bars
come out, and the green tanks are
dismantled, gas siphoned for school buses.
Troop ships sail home from a hundred shores,
so that husbands and wives can kiss unvirtually,
and children see the strong eyes of their fathers,
feel their love and their arms about them.
Uniforms become keepsakes and relics.
All flags are fine and flying.
Those in congresses clear their throats
apologetically and say, “What shall we do with
the leftover money?” Children with swollen bellies,
working as lobbyists, shout, “Food!” Others say,
“Let’s build a thousand new schools and parks.”
Lots of people hug and dance
and make love. Some cry.
The news is good at 6:00 o’clock.
More at 11:00.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
love this poem. I like Isaiah better than Joel 3 where they go the other way, beating farm implements into weapons. I assume this was an image born of a certain reality.
we need to beat our tanks into school busses
Thank you, Jack.
I have a very difficult time accepting how many people the U.S. military has killed. AND it keeps getting more money than the next 10 countries combined.
The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II
…But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?”
This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.
The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of the United States was crucial.
This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.
The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also responsible.
In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half the total number of nations.
Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.To the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether to become refugees, and how to survive…
https://shar.es/agtP3Y
Thank you, Jack.
Your poem reminds me of the Jaques Brel song If We Only Have Love from the 70’s: