It is tempting to frame such deaths within narratives of resolve or resolve renewed. But restraint asks something else—to sit with the cost without rushing to justify it, to acknowledge that bravery does not cancel grief, and that duty fulfilled still leaves a void.
Wars do not announce their endings. They fade from attention while continuing to shape lives in quiet, enduring ways. Remembering that truth is not an argument against service or sacrifice; it is an insistence on honesty about what is asked of those who serve and of the families who wait.
