I must take a second to express that this is not an official statement. This is the opinion of the author and does not represent the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, the United States Marine Corps, or anyone that I have missed that could potentially court martial the author. This is only the opinion of the author.
Recently I've been posting a lot of anti-war propaganda. Considering I've spent the last 15 years in the Marine Corps infantry many people think this is rather Ironic. I don't. Honestly, I haven't met anyone who has truly experienced war that is really for it. Most of us are caught in this strange type of purgatory where we've grown to truly hate war but miss it terribly. It's exceptionally strange.
If you look in our past the majority of our Nation's leaders were anti-war. Which I find entirely ironic because we go to war so often. Some of the greatest quotes of warfare have escaped the lips of our General's who lead our youth into combat and from the high ranking politicians that declare the war and tell the General's to act. Yet, the next generation of politicians does the same. It's exceptionally strange.
There is a peculiarity about war that those who have never been in combat will never understand. Good men go to war at our Nation's calling and spill their blood on the battlefield. Each person who returns is forever changed. They've seen and possibly committed horrors that go against their very nature. They are left forever scarred by that experience and left to receive treatment from someone who has never experienced anything like it. My own therapist constantly makes comparisons of my experiences of trauma caused by combat to those who experience trauma caused by a car accident. This perplexes me because I've been in car accidents but I've never had a car transform into something that shot at me. I've never had the opportunity to shoot back when experiencing a car accident. So I've never quite understood my therapists point. I think that maybe where we lose something when it comes to treatment after the fact. The thing is, war is nasty.
Last night I watched a movie entitled "The Season of the Witch". It's not a bad movie, not a great movie either. Yet, in the beginning of the movie there is a sequence of two soldiers serving during the Crusades. In the first several battle scenes they were in combat with regular armies. Their spiritual leader spoke of killing in the name of God. This, by the way, is a strange concept for me but that's an entirely different subject. Then these warriors came upon a siege where after fighting with the outlying forces they broke into a city. In a smoky haze from the fires within the city they set to their duties of attacking those within the walls. As the smoke began to clear all that remained were the slain bodies of women and children. Not another soldier in sight. That scene forced me to pause the movie and walk away from the TV for a few. It was all too familiar. Today we rarely cause devastation with blades yielded by our own hands but we cause even more horrific scenes.
Today we cause devastation from a distance for most. The majority of that damage is caused by pilots thousands of feet above the earth. By a 19 year old kid thousands of miles away sitting behind a computer screen that shows more the likes of a video game than reality. By bombs that we fling thousands of meters. Most of the devastation is done from a distance. After all most General's preach that you should never send a man where you can send a bombardment of bombs, artillery, and mortars first. Reconnaissance by fire is a standard tactic. It saves the lives of our men by killing nearly everything before they get there. But when they get there they are left to witness what is left.
That's what a lot of people just don't understand. In combat you often wonder what it's all for. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? What is this accomplishing? How is this making my country safer?
Again, it's exceptionally strange. War should be kept as a last resort. When all else fails. It shouldn't be a preventative measure. War doesn't prevent much. Not that I can see anyway. Aside from prevention war costs more than the toll on the battlefield. It costs the citizens of the country perpetrating the war. War is, and always has been, expensive. It costs in lives, it costs in mending the wounded, it costs in logistics. Every aspect of war costs.
War being used as a last resort should also have a clear end-state. Win or lose, war should have that specific end-state: this is it, we've done what we came to do and now we're going home. If an occupation of any form should take place it should be meticulously planned and orchestrated before we even go to war. Not haphazardly put together once you're there. That will only extend the problem.
Ideally, the threat of war should be enough of a deterrent to prevent war. Yet, we continuously go to war. We continuously attempt to influence everyone else. The result is more pain and suffering for those sent to battle and those who are born witness to what's left afterwards. Those who are sent to wage war are left with their souls torn asunder for what they may have done and what they have witnessed. Those who were innocent of the conflict are left a devastated landscape to attempt to repair. Left with memories of what was done to their life. Left in turmoil. Then the war machine marches on stealing all but a glimmer of hope.
In literature, prose, plays, and movies wars are glorified. Epic battles with heroes defeating villains. Tales of courage. Legends being born. Honor and glory being achieved. A warped reality. I find it odd that the literature of the West glorifies something so horrible. Is it the beginning of the desensitization of an upcoming generation who will then strive to go to war so they can earn their own glory? If only they'd realize that the most glorious moment one can experience is when war is evaded, the war machine sent home, the lives spared, the souls given mercy, the innocence left to remain intact for one more breath.
War being used as a last resort should also have a clear end-state. Win or lose, war should have that specific end-state: this is it, we've done what we came to do and now we're going home. If an occupation of any form should take place it should be meticulously planned and orchestrated before we even go to war. Not haphazardly put together once you're there. That will only extend the problem.
Ideally, the threat of war should be enough of a deterrent to prevent war. Yet, we continuously go to war. We continuously attempt to influence everyone else. The result is more pain and suffering for those sent to battle and those who are born witness to what's left afterwards. Those who are sent to wage war are left with their souls torn asunder for what they may have done and what they have witnessed. Those who were innocent of the conflict are left a devastated landscape to attempt to repair. Left with memories of what was done to their life. Left in turmoil. Then the war machine marches on stealing all but a glimmer of hope.
In literature, prose, plays, and movies wars are glorified. Epic battles with heroes defeating villains. Tales of courage. Legends being born. Honor and glory being achieved. A warped reality. I find it odd that the literature of the West glorifies something so horrible. Is it the beginning of the desensitization of an upcoming generation who will then strive to go to war so they can earn their own glory? If only they'd realize that the most glorious moment one can experience is when war is evaded, the war machine sent home, the lives spared, the souls given mercy, the innocence left to remain intact for one more breath.
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