I saw the movie Jarhead this weekend and my wife had enough foresight to
get a sitter for the kids and go with me. Being a veteran of the first Gulf
conflict, I should have anticipated the effect of this movie on me, but didn’t.
She did. So when we walked out and I asked, “So is it okay if I am morose for
a few days?†she replied, “Of course.â€
What a woman. As portrayed in the movie, most young men with me in 1990–91 received
a Dear John letter during the course of their stay. I did not. The letters
from my then girlfriend kept me alive and at least half sane for 2 years. That’s
why the best thing I ever did is come home and marry her.
*****
I had read several reviews of Jarhead before seeing the film and most
of them complained that nothing happened. Well, guess what, genius? That
is what happened. Nothing. Someone said, “War is periods of boredom interrupted
by awful and intense episodes of violence. “ They are entirely correct.
Battle can be a relief to the excruciating pain of waiting for it, but when the violence
does come that is where the scars are made.
So, as crazy as it sounds, I can sympathize with the characters of Jarhead who
lament ‘their war’. When a young, 19 year-old boy spends 2 years preparing to
reign death down on his enemies and spends 6 months in the desert waiting to do it,
things go a little crazy. Yep. Been there.
With the wisdom of years, it is much easier to see the waste of our political leaders
spent in the bodies of our young people. When you are one of them, you cannot
afford to look beyond the muzzle of your rifle. The passion of a warrior must
be blind to his use as a tool, or his effectiveness is dulled. Therefore, even
with the defunct leadership of our presidents, I praise today’s young warriors
and pray that they can heal. It took me two years out of the military to hold
a steady job and I experienced nothing like the horror that tomorrow’s Iraq veterans
are seeing today.
My sons, like most boys, idealize soldiers and love to play war. That is
fine, this is what boys do, but when Memorial Day came last year, I took my sons
to the Veteran’s cemetery here in Idaho and showed them the graves of 3 young people
killed in Iraq. I wanted them to understand that soldiers and Marines are paid
to kill and die. They do both very well.