The Horrors of War

I didn't see "Lone Survivor" nor did I see Marcus Latrell's interview on the "Kelly File" on Fox Tuesday night. I did see an excerpt on "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday. I tell you this for full disclosure before I write the following.

Now that my disclosure is out of the way, I begin with this: Any idiot who thinks a war movie glorifies war or is propaganda by the government to sanctify its actions to go to war is a dumb@$$.

War is hell. Ask anyone who has been on the frontlines. I was fortunate not to have been in a war, but I had friends, cousins and acquaintances who came back in boxes. I had one friend who never made it back at all, except for his dog tags. How about you?

I had friends and others who made it back, as drug addicts, or with something once called "shell-shock", but now known as PTSD, and therapy was not available. One  of my friends couldn't deal with it, and one day, went into his garage, started the car and ultimately, resolved his pain by ending his life. How about you?

I have met, worked with and discussed with these people, whether it was WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or any skirmish in between, what it was like, whether they wanted to go, and how they managed to survive, and to a man and woman each said, they did it so we wouldn't have war in the future. They didn't go because there was some excitement or adrenaline rush for them to achieve. And I will tell you, none of them wanted to discuss their tours (a strange word) in detail because if you weren't there, you wouldn't truly understand. How about you?

Yes, I know there are valiant, altruistic reasons we like to use to "justify" some of the reasons we go to war: freedom, liberty, justice, fairness. Or the opposite reasons, words like: oppression, slavery, domination. Or greed. Or economics. Or real estate. And, finally, how about you?

Maybe, if you were talking about movies from the 40s and 50s, like Sands of Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal Diary, Sergeant York, Casablanca, From Here to Eternity, Stalag 17 or A Hill in Korea, a case could be made that Hollywood, with the government's consent, made films which glorified war, made it palatable, and in the case of Buck Privates Come Home, No Time For Sergeants or Onionhead, made it comedic. Or, as with Mr Roberts, The African Queen or The Caine Mutiny, showed a backstory.

But the films made since then, like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Black Hawk Down and so many others, just like Lone Survivor, have all shown the horrors of war, the depravity of the situation, and the actions soldiers on all sides resort to, in order to survive. There is no propaganda here to show our guys as the "good guys".

Probably, the most honest line, whether real or fiction, which describes the true horror of war,  came from the 1970 movie "Patton", which was said in the speech right at the beginning of the film:

"Patton: Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

Trust me. That is not propaganda, folks. That's honesty, in its basest form, telling it like it is.

So, if you really want to make yourself look like a fool, to all you liberal bloggers and others who think this, or any war movie is propaganda for the glory of war, think about your stupid, asinine statement and how foolish you really make yourself sound. It is an anti-war film of the first order, with all the horror revealed that war really is.

And remember this: Sometimes, it's better to keep your mouth (or pen) shut and be thought the fool, than open it and remove all doubt.