nhp
02-09-2005, 01:22 AM
What a fantastic book...I was in the hospital for a few days, and now I've been sick at home for another few days, and I found this book hidden amongst the hundreds (literally) of books lying around my house (my whole family loves to read). I must say it's been quite a long time since I have been moved that emotionally from a book. To me it's a sobering reminder of the horrors of war. Although one might think you cannot compare the grueling trench warfare of WWI to the urban warfare of the current situation in Iraq, you really can. People bleed just the same, people suffer just the same. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time can still cost you your life, and your limbs if you survive.
As some of you know, my father is a WWII veteran, he led a platoon of 36 men into the bloodiest American battle in Europe, the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944/1945. His company was captured by the Germans in Belgium after suffering losses of more than 3/4 of his company. Of his platoon, only him and 6 or 7 of his men survived the captivity of 5 months, starving, freezing, and sick. My father, now of course a 100% disabled veteran, suffering from PTSD, and mild alzheimers, often tells me, upon looking at the morning newspaper about the reports on Iraq, that war- all types of war, is like taking young men, some not even old enough to buy a beer, and sending them into a meat grinder. Now I hear reports of women soldiers, fighting alongside men, being KIA.
Always support your troops, in whatever ways you can. This does not necessarily mean supporting the war itself. When I say I support our troops, by that I mean I care for them, I care for their safety, I care for their mental well-being, I care for their families. I don't care for the politics behind the whole thing. To see the looks of terror in these young people's eyes, sends a shiver down my spine because I know I'm supposed to be there with them. A back injury prevented me from staying in the service, and many of my buddies from basics, and AIT are over there right now.
My point is, I believe that before one supports the cause of a war that is questionable, try to understand, try to see the horrors of what it is really like. When you see someone get shot in movies, they just clutch their chest, gasp, and drop dead. In real life, people scream, flesh is torn off, limbs are maimed, and comrades cry. To see images in my head of what our brave young soldiers are going through, it angers me, that they endure this to remove a brutal dictator, when there are worse dictators in the world. This reason is not enough, it is not enough, not for the sake of democracy to be instilled in a country that didn't ask for it. It is not worth one of our soldiers, not worth one lost arm or leg. It is not worth the utter devastation to the families of our lost soldiers.
You'd think that WWII or Vietnam would teach the WORLD a lesson. The catastrophic loss of life, the after effects, what people endured. The truth is, the world which has not experienced death does not care about death, until death is upon them. When the sheer thought of the current war crosses your mind, does it disturb you, or does it just pass through, as a normality that you hear every day? For most people, they are used to it, but they are not. They are used to something that is far away from them, that has no effect on them, they are swayed by politics rather than the look of fear on an 18-year old US soldier's face on the cover of Time magazine.
Our world is numbed to war, numbed to the thought of death. War should be a powerful word, it should instill only the rawest of images when that word registers into the human mind. But it does not, and it will not, because we are not the ones who experience war. We can look into the eyes of someone who has, and still feel no empathy, for it is the nature and weakness of every living human being- you don't feel sorry until it happens to you.
As some of you know, my father is a WWII veteran, he led a platoon of 36 men into the bloodiest American battle in Europe, the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944/1945. His company was captured by the Germans in Belgium after suffering losses of more than 3/4 of his company. Of his platoon, only him and 6 or 7 of his men survived the captivity of 5 months, starving, freezing, and sick. My father, now of course a 100% disabled veteran, suffering from PTSD, and mild alzheimers, often tells me, upon looking at the morning newspaper about the reports on Iraq, that war- all types of war, is like taking young men, some not even old enough to buy a beer, and sending them into a meat grinder. Now I hear reports of women soldiers, fighting alongside men, being KIA.
Always support your troops, in whatever ways you can. This does not necessarily mean supporting the war itself. When I say I support our troops, by that I mean I care for them, I care for their safety, I care for their mental well-being, I care for their families. I don't care for the politics behind the whole thing. To see the looks of terror in these young people's eyes, sends a shiver down my spine because I know I'm supposed to be there with them. A back injury prevented me from staying in the service, and many of my buddies from basics, and AIT are over there right now.
My point is, I believe that before one supports the cause of a war that is questionable, try to understand, try to see the horrors of what it is really like. When you see someone get shot in movies, they just clutch their chest, gasp, and drop dead. In real life, people scream, flesh is torn off, limbs are maimed, and comrades cry. To see images in my head of what our brave young soldiers are going through, it angers me, that they endure this to remove a brutal dictator, when there are worse dictators in the world. This reason is not enough, it is not enough, not for the sake of democracy to be instilled in a country that didn't ask for it. It is not worth one of our soldiers, not worth one lost arm or leg. It is not worth the utter devastation to the families of our lost soldiers.
You'd think that WWII or Vietnam would teach the WORLD a lesson. The catastrophic loss of life, the after effects, what people endured. The truth is, the world which has not experienced death does not care about death, until death is upon them. When the sheer thought of the current war crosses your mind, does it disturb you, or does it just pass through, as a normality that you hear every day? For most people, they are used to it, but they are not. They are used to something that is far away from them, that has no effect on them, they are swayed by politics rather than the look of fear on an 18-year old US soldier's face on the cover of Time magazine.
Our world is numbed to war, numbed to the thought of death. War should be a powerful word, it should instill only the rawest of images when that word registers into the human mind. But it does not, and it will not, because we are not the ones who experience war. We can look into the eyes of someone who has, and still feel no empathy, for it is the nature and weakness of every living human being- you don't feel sorry until it happens to you.