Dead Soldier Day

[perezoso]

Veterans Day is to be counted, I believe, among the fairly insignificant patriotic "holidays," similiar to Labor or Memorial Day; the American Legion guys are featured in the paper wearing their nice caps with the medallions; politicians appear at various veterans functions to shake hands with old grizzled WWII infantrymen or Shriner-like survivors of the Korean War, though we don't see the politicos often shaking hands with the Vietnam-type vets, who are, as the media would have it, all long-haired street psychotics searching for some decent bud and underground assault rifles. Solid conservative opportunities to obtain vet. photographs--photos of stern hawk-faced elders that a backwater republican congressman might display like trophies on a web site festooned with flags, schoolkids, and the expected rows of healthy crops or orchards--are rather slim with former Ranger-marksman turned freaks who think the local mall is "in country" and whose most profound spiritual memory is most likely of Thai or Subic Bay bar girls doing some asian spin fuck thing on a table top for the crew.

But words are so feeble, as are sentences and propositions, and ultimately, statistics, in terms of capturing the monumental psychopathology of war; the photographs and documentary footage present the truth far more effectively and more evocatively. Old grainy photos of dead German or French dogfaces hanging in barbed wire above trenches at the Battle of Verdun or something are as beautiful as Van Gogh's drawings of whores, perhaps more so, and the beauty is not one of artifice; it's not contrived, as most war writing and Ho-wood films seem to be. (Though having recently read Tim O'Brien's "The Things they Carried" I must say it is quite powerful).

Yet given the millions of 20th century war dead--whether soldiers, civilians, or genocide victims--it's surprising and in fact dismaying that so few pictures of the dead are to be found in newspapers, on TV, on the web, in books. And this "corpse image control" continues presently with the Iraqi conflict: we see a few pics of blasted cities, perhaps a few graves or bodies, and the occasional beheading, but on the whole the American public does not have to endure, say, the sight of dozens of mangled bodies blown apart by a US cruise missile. This is a type of modern political injustice if not hypocrisy. I say that the US Government, and any govt. engaging in warfare, has an obligation to show graphic pictures of death and military destruction; indeed, it should be live and media-streamed on TV and the Net for all to see, including schoolchildren.

[hester_prynne]

Indeed, pictures would certainly be more effective in reducing the addiction to war, just as pictures of meth ravaged brains have kept me away from meth.
It's as if they start these wars in an effort to recapture an old taste of victory. Thus the old geezers day in the sun. And the day off for shopping sales. ugh.
Nevermind that the vietnam vets are abandoned, they didn't generate that taste of victory so forget about them.
argggghhhhhhhhh!
It sucks.
IT PISSES ME OFF!
It wigs me out to feel so helpless to do anything much about it.
America....The land of denial.
Thanks perezozo, for a gritty but very true post.
H

[perezoso]

Thanks for commenting Hester. Yeah, it is gritty. Here in supposedly "hip" southern California the patriots and veterans are all waving flags and celebrating. Although the republicans are the ones sending the troops into war, when the boys--usually hispanic or black though a few caucasians--are sent back home in a casket, the conservative morons still blame liberals and are as gung ho as ever, even more so. And the cons. protest if the caskets or dead US soldiers are displayed on TV, the papers,.etc.

It irks me that those who support the war--including so- called "Christians"-- refuse to count the iraqi civilian casualties as well. As far as Nam, well we can't even go there. For all these American military "heroes" of 'Nam--either enlisted or officers--don't appear so heroic when North and South Vietnamese "casualties" are added up. It's far too horrifying for the average suburban American consumer to comprehend.

[stilltrucking]

I love those commercials that start "In honor of our heroes we are having a veteran's day sale."

I have become so meek in my old age I will probably inherit the earth.


eloquent and moving but I am too lazy too translate the last line so I am not getting all of it

[mnaz]

This vaguely righteous-numb disconnect of which you speak is huge.

Battle hardened, battle ruined; war as necessary cancer, or vicious cycle.
To view its grim reality is pointless. It was always within.

Well said.

[stilltrucking]

It is well said mnaz
I suppose it is pointless to point out that the Democrats controlled congress in 2002.

I date myself because Veteran's Day will always be Armistice Day to me.
The war to end all wars.


Boy this one is a goldy oldy from 2004

I been seeing a lot more dead bodies on tv now a days
I suppose that's progress.

[mnaz]

...some amazing posts over the last 2+ years... went thru several pages from 11/04 to 7/05... the various "trajectories" here... and yeh, the numbing, monumental psychopathology of war... its permanent stain on victor and vanquished... "beautiful"... if utterly lost may be beautiful... But of course I speak only from my own understanding.

[stilltrucking]

original minded
in a world of abortions of individuality
too bad I can't talk to him

[mnaz]

Jack...

You can talk to anyone, it seems.

(And I'd like to imagine that's true of myself as well).

[stilltrucking]

TK posted a peom it is gone now.
The first version got into my blood. Then he edited about three times and deleted it.

I should have commented on the first version but I hesitated, now it is too late. It was brilliant, but I figured he did not want to hear that from me. I hope he reposts it, but maybe it was spontaneous and he lost it. I

On an unrelated personal note.
mnaz I understand Einstein's fear if not his theories.
I also understand his regret about that letter.

[mnaz]

I guess I never saw it that way, or realized, but you've opened my eyes. It just shows the powerful grip that fear can have on humankind-- even the most utterly brilliant among us.