Monday, March 24, 2003

War Is Personal
Yesterday we were issued several shocking reminders direct from the battlefield that wars are actually fought on a plane that is excruciatingly, devastatingly personal. As a sergeant who was shot in the back in Vietnam once told me, "There was nothing in the whole world except me and that pain."

In this new era of televised warfare, the Arab satellite station Al Jazeera showed gruesome footage yesterday of several Americans who had been killed and five who were being held as prisoners of war. If you were looking for a reason not to ever make light of warfare, this would be a good one. The prisoners were questioned on camera, and when one was asked why he was in Iraq, he replied, "Because I was told to come here."

However one feels about the pros or cons of this war, this development was heartbreaking. An undisclosed number of American troops in the region saw the footage, and some wept.

Earlier in the day came word that an American soldier in Kuwait had attacked his fellow soldiers with hand grenades. One was killed and several were wounded. The attacker, a sergeant, reportedly is a Muslim who resented the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"Everybody's a bit jumpy, edgy," said Capt. James McGahey. "You never want to have to think whether you can trust the guy to your left or your right."

Madness is the rule in warfare. When we send our young men and women off to combat we send them into a zone of madness, and they are never the same when they return, whether they are physically injured or not. At the height of the conflict in Vietnam I was assigned to an Army engineer battalion in Korea. I was always happy, like everyone else, to get mail from home. But every now and then I'd get a letter with news that a friend had been killed in Vietnam.

Like those being killed now in Iraq, my friends had been caught in a zone of madness and hadn't survived. This sudden loss of real, live, breathing, loving human beings is not given nearly enough thought when we consider going to war.

I think the extraordinary televised coverage of the war with Iraq is a good thing. It looks less like a video game these days, and more like the real hell of combat. I don't see how any sane person could watch the astonishing bombardment of Baghdad, and follow the reports on the ground of one human tragedy after another, and remain cavalier about sending troops into harm's way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/opinion/24HERB.html

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