Where to begin? It seems that war is just too big of a topic for Hollywood to handle in 90-110 minutes. Go figure. I know I can’t do it justice in 300-plus pages, either, but it will be more accurate than anything Hollywood can dish up.
I suspect what people want from Hollywood is to take the viewer from innocent civilian to battle-hardened soldier and back again. Do we really want Hollywood to tell us about Charlie’s war in Afghanistan or are we more interested in the conflicts within the soul of the Lion of Panjshir?
Modern war movies seem to be more about telling the story within the story. The other problem with movies is that there is no smell, except of popcorn and spilled fountain drinks. Try to imagine the real smells of war. Then smell the “imagined” ones of fear and death. Do death and fear have a scent? Is it a bad thing if you don’t know the answer to that question?
We are all fascinated with war. It is tribalism at its worst and unveils the darkness within each of our souls. That is why scenes from The Deer Hunter are so hard to watch. We realize that war can take good, decent, and normal people to dark places from which they never can fully return. The movies that touch us the most are those that teach us new ways to think about the common man turned warrior. What makes him take on these unbearable loads? Imagine the burden of command, the weight of a nation upon your very flawed and weak mind and body.
What if, after great personal sacrifice and loss, your president gives away with the stroke of his pen the victory soaked in the blood of your friends and the Marines who believed in you enough to follow your not-always-perfect orders?
Why is war hell? you ask. War is hell because of how the Ruling Class mocks the sacrifices of our warriors. Then there is survivor’s guilt thrown in for good measure.
The best modern war movies do not try to explain war or even human nature. What they do is try to provide a glimpse into the impenetrable psychic conflicts that modern warfare weighs upon the American grunt. One reason that Saving Private Ryan did not really work after the opening scenes is because Tom Hanks was miscast in his role as an infantry officer. He could not and did not give us any sense, other than a shaking hand, of what it is like to order good men to their deaths. The only relief from the burden of command in combat is one’s own death, but in dying what if your replacement is an even more flawed human specimen?
In other words, you have asked me, the Soldier, to go to places and do things for you there that you cannot do for yourself. I have been there and done things as ordered. I am forever changed and not always for the better.
Before spending nearly 30 years in the defense of the greatest nation on Earth’s history, I enjoyed the life of a carefree vagabond with nine lives to give. Now I battle 24/7/11 with tyrants. Tyranny is a beast that cannot be killed but only brought to heel.
Your dilemma is whether or not to accept me as I now am or pretend that you have nothing to do with what I have become. I did not start out this way. I know freedom is not free and that our nation is worth the sacrifice but at what human cost? There is no butcher’s bill too great, physically and/or psychologically, we are unwilling to allow our warriors to pay.
Finally, how do you make sure that America will remain worthy of my efforts to defend her? Will I be mocked in the end by my fellow citizens turning the greatest nation on Earth into something that was not worth fighting, killing, and dying for?
ST UnWoke! 
Was I the central figure in winning the war on drugs/ cocaine back in the 90s?
Why did we lose our hard-won victory over the Colombian drug cartels and hand the illegal drug trade over to the ChiComs?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My father used to have a saying. “Let all the evil in the world come out at once.” He believed it was an ancient saying, although I cannot find it anywhere, and my Dad is the only person I have ever heard say those words. What he meant, of course, was just that we are better off knowing exactly where we stand, and what we are up against.
“Why did we lose our hard-won victory over the Colombian drug cartels and hand the illegal drug trade over to the ChiComs?”
Because those in charge made money off the deal, somehow. And, because too many Americans like myself and even my Dad, were hopelessly naive. I remember when I seriously beleived that the Bush family were patriotic Americans who wanted what was best for this country.
We think things have gotten worse in the past 30 years, but have they really? Or are we just more aware of what is really going on? I feel like all the evil in the world is coming out at once. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if it wakes people up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One would think giving the Chinks our Panama Canal would have been recompense for whatever sins we did against that nation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“The movies that touch us the most are those that teach us new ways to think about the common man turned warrior. What makes him take on these unbearable loads? Imagine the burden of command, the weight of a nation upon your very flawed and weak mind and body.”
No greater love.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Twitter says I’m a hater as does L!
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are the ones who are haters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to agree. As one of my girlfriends is wont to say, “I am not understand.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are liars, and haters. I don’t understand how they sleep at night.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was well written. My uncle was one of the men on Patton’s famous march during WWII. He refused to talk about anything that had happened during that march and took his secrets to his grave with him: It affected him that profoundly.
I look at what the USA is devolving into and I shudder.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Muchisimas gracias.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My Dad almost fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was almost finished with boot camp when his father was killed by a drunk driver. My Dad went home for his father’s funeral, and the unit he was with went to Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. My Dad ended up in the Phillipines and fought on Peleliu. He never said anything about it, except that he was there. Having read books about it, I understand why.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Howdy, Teniente Peligroso! Siempre Fiel!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Trying not to be mentally/spiritually immobilized by this monstrosity of a reality, not flippant with my greeting. You know how powerful I think your Preface is, ST.
LikeLiked by 2 people