2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration internet kitzhaber language law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

I was enlisted in the Army for 5 years beginning in Feb 2002, ending in 2007. During my enlistment I was acutely aware of a disconnect between the professional, sterile language we used to discuss war and the violent reality of war itself. It seems as though the military is still reeling from the public disgrace it encountered in Viet man, and in an effort to validate itself, has sterilized its entire business. The Army is more cooperation than fighting machine. We can't use ugly language to talk about the ugly things we're doing in Iraq. This is a professional organization with effective technologies for dealing with all its functions. The Iraq War has not seen the kind of journalism that, in Viet man, connected the public with the brutality of the war. But that doesn't mean it isn't going on. A friend of mine returned from Iraq with a laptop full of photos he has taken with his phone. One day as he was showing me the slide show we came across a picture of a mortar-blown crater. Charred limbs were resting near the craters edge, and local Iraqis were rushing toward the scene. My friend laughed, and told me that those were "enemy combatants had been eliminated", like waste, like a problem with your muffler.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
view in context