Tim Hetherington, a British photographer based in New York who was a director and producer of the film “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata on Wednesday [4-20-11] ...
7-18-10 RE-POST from Correntewire:
Troops ream Afghan elders,
“Stop Taliban-money kills!"
OUR soldiers kill, why?
We never find out from this movie. We never hear any of them ask, either.
Fly-on-the-wall, or rather, on-the-craggy-rock-surface reality.
I appreciated this film. The filmmakers risked their lives, the same way the soldiers were risking theirs. I can understand the risk, admittedly monstrously awesome, the movie makers took for their art. As for the soldiers risking their lives over there? I have more trouble fathoming the soldiers’ risk (aside from authoritarian-following, trapped within the military matrix, betrayed by the ruling class rat bastards of the United States reasons. Excuse my French.)
Dropped into an insane, PTSD-creating environment, not for a minute but for 15 long months for the soldiers. A psyche-altering, along with possibly, even probably, life-ending, predicament. (One soldier said into the camera early on, “I’m gonna die here!”)
If you manage to escape with your life, what has it done to your sanity?
To kill Taliban soldiers in this particular war zone. This is counter-insurgency warfare. To win the hearts and minds of the citizens of the invaded countries? Why would the U.S. possibly think it could do that with its amoral corporate agenda?
The U.S. is losing the hearts and minds of its own people, I mean here in the U.S. Why does it think it can win the hearts and minds of a foreign country it is devastating out of its addiction to imperialism and greed?
The U.S., its ruling elite, imho, has lost its collective mind. It lost its morality long ago.
Why are we over there? If you think it is for American self-defense, raise your hands? No one.
If you think it is for helping the Afghan people, raise your hands? No one.
If you think it is because it is an illegal war to gain land and oil, to break the hearts and minds of a people in order to exploit their resources, you get a big fat Pentagon gold star.
If you think it is also about the American collective ego, at least the ego of the political and military ruling class, that even though the war(s) were illegally and incompetently waged and fought, WE must score a WIN to save face (though this President was too easily corrupted to embrace the opportunity he had to NOT assume responsibility for these amoral wars and bring them to a sane close which was the mandate of the people he was elected by) you are right.
The chickenhawks (you know, like the Thomas Friedmans among so very many) far from the threat of death, bloviating all over the soundstages of Meet the Press, etc., must bullshit on with the audacity to make more young soldiers gratuitously end their lives or be psychologically traumatized probably forever by being threatened by or killing others.
These same chickenhawks doom those (apparently even more expendable than the soldiers in their colossal hubris) heart-breaking (to non-Americans, anyway) legions of citizens of our invaded/occupied countries to death or devastation.
18 American soldiers on average commit suicide every day one poll reports. American heirarchy apparently not heeding such a tragic message sent. Like an addict parent, who can’t give a sh*t about his or her insanely-in-pain child. MASSIVE NEGLECT!!! Young adult soldiers and those foreigners (who really aren’t, they are the actual residents over there, the Americans are the foreigners, but the soldiers on screen were existing in a narcissistic bubble as are most likely the vast majority of the American audience watching the movie) are expendable to power and control addicts. The patriarchy. The dysfunctional and deadly American patriarchy. Willing to sacrifice anyone, anywhere, any time. Except for members of its own tiny gated crony-community. Like, for one example, the millionaires' club a/k/a the U.S. Senate. Ends justifies the means, right? And the ends are the payoffs for their own hubris, power-hunger and greed. Oh yeah, and job security. God forbid a Congress person exercised integrity and lost his or her lobby nest eggs to actually fulfill the oath of office he or she originally took.
Within this movie, male bonding in the face of death? Yes. Soldiers performing their deadly duties, motivated solely by the instinct to keep themselves and their buddies alive? Yes.
50 soldiers lost their lives securing this “death valley” which, after this company’s deployment, was soon lost to the Taliban once again. One more "hamburger hill" in America's wrong-side-of-history history.
Ever see the movie Ground Hog Day? This was the PTSD version.
How many oldsters, women and children were killed in their crazymaking assignment of tracking down the mysterious specters of Taliban and Taliban-hired fighters? Five that we saw on-screen for a second. Undoubtedly many more. That was not the focus of the film, but if you have a shred of conscience the question would haunt you as well as the plight of the soldiers.
Watching the young soldiers insist to the Afghan elders that they were their allies. When alliance with the troops was a death sentence from the Taliban for the villagers. Hello? What were the soldiers seriously offering them? Not security. A future? A present? Lose/lose scenarios the consequences faced not by the “deciders” of such surreal scenarios but by their victims all around.
Watching the young soldiers try to convince the elders how wronged the troops were being, threatened by villagers paid by the Taliban, and paid, by the way, not well and not respectfully, to fight against the Americans.
Did the soldiers never ask themselves what they were soldiering there against the Taliban and Afghan resisters for? Was their role, paid by the rat bastard corporatist-cronied political and military ruling class using citizens' tax dollars, more legitimate, righteous and superior?
The troops knew or learned when they got there they were not there for American self-defense. The troops knew or learned when they got there they were not seriously there to help the Afghan people.
They were living avatars in a most dangerous game for the rat bastard U.S. military and political elite!
Excuse my French.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
----------
Afgh war must end now r.
Bravo, Libby!
Funny how the jinos (jews in name only) can see the folly in Afghanistan, but mention the slaughter of Palestinian children and continued inch by inch illegal proliferation of "settlements," and the gnashing of the teeth begins.
I thought the wolf man told someone he was gonna' stop with the stupid abbreviations. Guess it's hard to do whilst arm-twisting comments and ratings.
-R-
Funny how the jinos (jews in name only) can see the folly in Afghanistan, but mention the slaughter of Palestinian children and continued inch by inch illegal proliferation of "settlements," and the gnashing of the teeth begins.
I thought the wolf man told someone he was gonna' stop with the stupid abbreviations. Guess it's hard to do whilst arm-twisting comments and ratings.
-R-
Somehow all the wars with which the US is currently must be brought to TV screens. It's the only reality for most Americans.
Earlier I tried to comment.
I was gonna quote a PTSD
Journal - editor - Ph.D VA
Charles R. Figley was the:
`
editor of:`
Journal of Traumatic Stress
It not just war combat Stress
Narcissist cause great Stress
`
I spoke to former V.A. DCs
Regional Director ref War,
return trips to Peace land
post-War ref: Hanoi VN
`
I am off to get Pizza/beer
Grand children visited here
They know I'll do a beer run
I hope I remember the Pizza
I see Youth in the WV VAMC
Vets have that PTS - Stare too
`
It's nicknamed . . .
The 1,000 mile stare.
Returning Vets hurt.
The forehead veins
pop-out if the skin
It's a lost great pain
The soldier hurts bad
`
Thanks
This wasn't what I was
originally
gonna say
Kerry L.
reminds
me of
generals
so grave
lowly base
cruel sick
narcism
is worst
than the
numbness
of normal
P.T.S.D.
`
I hope this
is read by
Kerry L..
Thanks
Libby!
I was gonna quote a PTSD
Journal - editor - Ph.D VA
Charles R. Figley was the:
`
editor of:`
Journal of Traumatic Stress
It not just war combat Stress
Narcissist cause great Stress
`
I spoke to former V.A. DCs
Regional Director ref War,
return trips to Peace land
post-War ref: Hanoi VN
`
I am off to get Pizza/beer
Grand children visited here
They know I'll do a beer run
I hope I remember the Pizza
I see Youth in the WV VAMC
Vets have that PTS - Stare too
`
It's nicknamed . . .
The 1,000 mile stare.
Returning Vets hurt.
The forehead veins
pop-out if the skin
It's a lost great pain
The soldier hurts bad
`
Thanks
This wasn't what I was
originally
gonna say
Kerry L.
reminds
me of
generals
so grave
lowly base
cruel sick
narcism
is worst
than the
numbness
of normal
P.T.S.D.
`
I hope this
is read by
Kerry L..
Thanks
Libby!
Restrepo is one of the best documentaries on war ever made. I should be mandatory viewing for every high school student everywhere in the world. In May of 1967 I had my choice of the Air Force or the Naval Academies but after a summer working on the docks in Houston and living on the streets of San Francisco and Oakland that fall, I had a change of mind. In 1969 when President Nixon and I had a distinct disagreement about how I was going to spend my summer vacation, I disappeared for four years. In late 1973 the Feds dropped the felony charges and I was once more a free man. I've paid my dues in streets protesting our engagement in every conflict since then.
With any luck we can avoid this insanity in the future, but until then keep marching, keep making noise, and don't let the "rat bastards' grind you down.
OMoM
With any luck we can avoid this insanity in the future, but until then keep marching, keep making noise, and don't let the "rat bastards' grind you down.
OMoM
"The U.S., its ruling elite, imho, has lost its collective mind. It lost its morality long ago."
I would quote the whole article. This is a must read. The knowledge, logic, and general thought process in this piece give me both hope and pride. I feel privileged to have read this post, Libby. R
I would quote the whole article. This is a must read. The knowledge, logic, and general thought process in this piece give me both hope and pride. I feel privileged to have read this post, Libby. R
Libby ~ thanks for this informative and thoughtful post! Relating to never ending wars I find it interesting that the only Republican presidential candidate who served in the military, Ron Paul, is 180 degrees opposite of the others who are clearly armchair warriors in waiting! It's also fascinating to know that currently Paul has received almost twice the financial donations from those serving in the military than the other Republican presidential candidates, plus President Obama, combined!
jonathan, ty. agree re afghan war! Restrepo movie was not a surprise but chilling. I also think the syrian and iranian ones need to be stopped now before they begin (well, actually the one in syria has begun as well as the assassinations in Iran but not full out with manufacture of consent media) and the other levels of not so benign occupation and corporate domination and violence we don't begin to hear about, and we should pull out all the tentacles of our destabilizing black ops thruout the world as well as our "official" bases draining our money and alienating the residents of those regions. A paradigm shift to partnership and cooperation. The US and the UN and EU nations once had reputations for supporting international justice. Imperial barbarism has got to stop. It seems the only game in town for international interaction. Might does not make right!!!! We deserve a President, a Congress, a national security force based on honor and ethics and real national defense not corruption. libby
mark, the denial of what is happening in Palestine I suspect put a huge wedge in the Democratic party family, and the lefties willing to call out Israel and the "pragmatics" unwilling to, parted company. Awesome how the Congress doesn't seem to have more than those you can count on one hand with fingers left over willing to cross AIPAC as well as the corporate media, of course. we should have been a "tough loving" friend of Israel's, not an enabling codependent, but Israel has played that role with us, too, in our insane mendaciously explained violence. We are captives of our government, the sociopathic USWarMachine and the Frankenstein 3 headed monster of Wall St., Mad Ave. and Big Media. We are the captives of these terrible entities not the people who are supposed to be served by their government, people who should be the collective voice of government themselves. I know you recognize that. I wish more people could be righteous about that. best, libby
I will add "Restrepo" to my list of must-see films. All I can think of is how many young men and women have lost their lives, body parts and minds due to these wars. It must stop.
Peter, if only the tv was trustworthy. 5 conglomerate chieftains run media worldwide. Talk about a recipe for fascism. The news is projecting horrifying violence on the tv now but not judiciously, to manufacture consent for the side the USWarMachine and its oligarch directors want in power, the one they can manipulate and the one that will most readily violate the majority of citizenry, putting its thumb on the scales in civil wars which we have had a hand in starting up and in which we have picked the side to fulfill economic opportunism for the one percent oligarchs and NOT justice and humanitarianism for our global brethren. We need international awareness among us all as citizens without borders. Sacred human beings without borders who deserve not to be terrorized, impoverished or eliminated. We need to keep saying no. We need to talk morality, not a horrifying amoral pragmatism like I see on Charlie Rose, Meet the Press, commentators for a video game of global war. Real soulful people who haven't given over their integrity to profit, cronyism and/or access. I don't know how Jill Stein could do it in the Greens, but I sure would like to help her get there to the WH!!!! best, libby
art, thanks for your always intriguing, intrepid, penetrating comments! narcissism is a disorder, you betcha. PTSD is the horror of responding to the heart of darkness that some of humanity is capable of. I fear cronyism because it helps manufacture a horrifying, numbing, group-think security and behavior where a person is encouraged and cultivated to let go of the responsibility to be a moral human being. It fosters a group narcissism or a authoritarian following to the lead narcissists. I used to mistake the arrogance of narcissists as courage to be admired for its self-respect, now I see it for what it really is, the pathological brand of narcissism, we all have needs and entitlements, but not at the harm of others. raw ego and immature willfulness. Like what happens in gang herds that commit group violence primitively, loyalty to the group think and leaders is all without evaluation for morality and justice, like in ghettos or in penthouses and corporate conference rooms or oval offices and offices in the pentagon and their think-tanks for global and domestic exploitation or also what happens around water coolers and within websites or families, where cronies promise that they won't think critically and prioritize conscience and not make waves but swill the koolaid of faux-civility. the 1000 mile stare. once you've got it, hard to get back the lightness of innocence. best, libby
OMom, inspiringly shared, thank you!!! you took a powerful stand. I don't know how our leadership, our media spokespeople, and the legacy parties, ALL, can divorce the reality of war from the political speak, the horrifying gamesmanship. But we who are calling out the terrible reality of war can speak with our feet in the streets, we can speak with our fingers in the blogosphere. We can message that we are citizens and human beings WITHOUT borders. There are too many of us to stay captives of the 1 percenters. Like in the 12-step rooms the first step is admitting the reality, acknowledging it, how low we have come as a society. The more of us declaring that then we will stop careening to deeper and more horrifying "bottoms" and we can begin to climb those steps to humanism and partnership and cooperation and respect for the sanctity of EVERY human life. best, libby
Thoth, you are always so generous and I cherish your comments. This was written from the heart right after seeing this movie. A friend urged me to see it. I admit my own distaste to have so much reality and quiet horror put before me so intensely but I went along and it helped to share about it later, the quiet horror of it. It was an experiential movie that did its work on one's sensibility. I agree with jmac, it should be compulsory watching, to de-romanticize war and violence and the military. Thoth, I feel so honored and grateful to be told my message was received loud and clear! :)
toritto!!!! thanks for commenting and encouraging and visiting!
best, libby
toritto!!!! thanks for commenting and encouraging and visiting!
best, libby
Thanks designanator! Yes, the troops seem to be pushing forward Ron Paul and his end the war platform!!! LOUDLY!!! So much "support the troops" bullshit, but not really, it never was, about supporting the troops. that was sentimental jingoism for political polling. That was for spin. How crazymaking for the poor troopos. The people REALLY supporting the troops are the ones questioning and challenging the wars, including a whole bunch of vets who are given lazy lipservice but not seriously listened to now or given media air time. What a con for too many years, if you criticized the war policy you were dissing the soldiers who trusted the honor of their government, MISTAKENLY. Who were used for cannon fodder for barbaric imperialism for profiteering corporatists ... and the chickenhawks who don't give a sh*t who dies as long as they get theirs, money and power. Both legacy parties endorse and promote wars. The dronemaking and drone use, the designer deadly munitions we eagerly sell to anyone and everyone around the globe since we are so fond of colonizing unstable nation states and anything for a profit, look at auto weapons within our states. The militarization of our own country. Profits uber alles. We really need a non-corporate political party to say a BIG NO on behalf of us, to be OUR COLLECTIVE VOICE! We have to take back our country and our constitution. best, libby
erica, you slipped in there as I was holding forth on my comments. Thank you. Restrepo is a hard watch. Yes, the lives of our own young people are risked and altered so along with the millions of the globe who have been wounded or killed by the USWarMachine. You know when I re-posted this article and I read my own statistic of 18 suicides of soldiers a day in this country I thought that couldn't be true, even though I trusted I got it somewhere. I found the link and included it. I realize it is suicide attempts, some successful some not. But that is a staggering statistic. I also began to read more about the hidden suicides from reckless drinking, driving, drugging, etc from the psychological as well as physical brutalization of war. And with modern medicine so many troops that would have died years ago but were saved today enough to be in some cases severely wounded and still in pain but alive, to have such limited functioning and emotional, physical and economic needs! thanks for visiting! best, libby
I watched Restrepo. It was much easier for me to observe on TV than it was for those boys to be in that shitty valley.
libbyleberanyc . . .
Your comments are Teachings . . .
That comment You wrote . . . Thanks.
The few movies that I've seen wear me out.
I recall 'Deer Hunter' and almost yelled`Tell!
When a recruiter was challenged by a veteran:
`
I was disappointed because the `anti-war rant:
that took place in a high school auditorium was:
`
In my opinion was Hollywood ineffective babble!
`
I actually almost stood up in the movie theatre.
I almost . . .
`
TELL Truth
Tell them:
`
"No Go to War!"
`
Platoon was my experience.
Oliver Stone did what he could.
My jaws get stiff and lock shut.
I've viewed war artist and then:
`
I leave the exhibit and can't speak.
My jaw grinds shut like it's clamped.
One day in the seventies I remember:
I Vet nicknamed`Cranky lost two legs.
I heard he was at Walter Reed Hospital.
I was informed `Cranky died from wounds.
Cranky was not `Cranky. Cranky was jovial.
I recall the August heat. Cranky was dead G.I..
I sat in my pickup and wept. My jaw was clamped.
My mouth would not open. I could not take a bite:
`
I remember I traveled with apples and vitamin C
Oranges
to heal
war
wounds
My jaw would not open for a bit.
War's stressors can be the killers.
If bullet don't stop a heart? Stress.
Many soldiers die from war, Later.
on & on . . .
I remember what I was gonna write:
I've observed that son and daughters:
`
Many of the offspring of war veterans:
They exhibit a great maturity. I believe:
I know sometimes a Family life is tragic:
My sons and one daughter seem mature:
They mediate a gentle wisdom. I confide:
I love to ask their opinion on daily events:
I recall your familiar with war ref:`Family?
My children have a mature life perspective.
They (3) seem thirty-years beyond their age.
They never give false praise or foul flattery.
Of course, if I feel some inner-cord I Speak.
I'd prefer to never 'hurt' another in `thought,
word
deed
and
no ever
kill our
fellow
human
Beings
`
Your comments are Teachings . . .
That comment You wrote . . . Thanks.
The few movies that I've seen wear me out.
I recall 'Deer Hunter' and almost yelled`Tell!
When a recruiter was challenged by a veteran:
`
I was disappointed because the `anti-war rant:
that took place in a high school auditorium was:
`
In my opinion was Hollywood ineffective babble!
`
I actually almost stood up in the movie theatre.
I almost . . .
`
TELL Truth
Tell them:
`
"No Go to War!"
`
Platoon was my experience.
Oliver Stone did what he could.
My jaws get stiff and lock shut.
I've viewed war artist and then:
`
I leave the exhibit and can't speak.
My jaw grinds shut like it's clamped.
One day in the seventies I remember:
I Vet nicknamed`Cranky lost two legs.
I heard he was at Walter Reed Hospital.
I was informed `Cranky died from wounds.
Cranky was not `Cranky. Cranky was jovial.
I recall the August heat. Cranky was dead G.I..
I sat in my pickup and wept. My jaw was clamped.
My mouth would not open. I could not take a bite:
`
I remember I traveled with apples and vitamin C
Oranges
to heal
war
wounds
My jaw would not open for a bit.
War's stressors can be the killers.
If bullet don't stop a heart? Stress.
Many soldiers die from war, Later.
on & on . . .
I remember what I was gonna write:
I've observed that son and daughters:
`
Many of the offspring of war veterans:
They exhibit a great maturity. I believe:
I know sometimes a Family life is tragic:
My sons and one daughter seem mature:
They mediate a gentle wisdom. I confide:
I love to ask their opinion on daily events:
I recall your familiar with war ref:`Family?
My children have a mature life perspective.
They (3) seem thirty-years beyond their age.
They never give false praise or foul flattery.
Of course, if I feel some inner-cord I Speak.
I'd prefer to never 'hurt' another in `thought,
word
deed
and
no ever
kill our
fellow
human
Beings
`
Trey, I am glad I saw Restrepo in a dark theater rather than on the tv, making me keep my focus in the dark on such discomforting and spirit-altering erosions on the human beings before me or actual death coming to some. I think there would have been even more cognitive dissonance and a demand for greater self-discipline of attention from me (maybe me wanting to flip the screen off and not go there), between my own immediate safety at home watching and the sustained "unsafety" those troops of Restrepo went through. Their "surreality show" so to speak! 50 of them did not make it through that 15-month tour. They had to live in chronic terror and then they had to keep going through the 5 stages of grief over the loss of a buddy or buddies. They had to go through their own collective and private horrors and mechanisms for functioning such as demonizing the enemy or gallows humor or psychic numbing or hypervigilance or survivor guilt in that impossible "kill or MAYBE be killed" situation in which they were terrorizing others as they were terrorized themselves to occupy a valley that some "suit" authority decided suddenly one day to take it and a death-producing period later decided to abandon it back to the enemy after the costs of lives and suffering it had taken. So why did it have to be occupied in the first place? Hamburger hill or vale. There was little commentary in Restrepo telling you what to think or feel or telling you what the troops were thinking or feeling or anyone over there trying to put words into the guys' mouths, you got to witness first hand and read between the lines and observe the looks and the expressions in their eyes. Part of the horror was the "endurance requirements" for them, without the ability or authoritarian-indoctrination to question outright, to intellectually or emotionally or socially explore, the hell they and their buddies were existing in, had been thrown into, by their "command". Getting letters from loved ones safe at home with whom they also couldn't share with out of a sense of wanting to protect their significant ones who were safe. And how could their significant ones begin to grasp their horrors? Unspeakable horrors for civilized society supposedly. The horrors happening to them they were not protected from and the horrors they were expected to and did perpetrate. The focus was to stay alive and keep their buddies alive and do all they could though living through it was let's face it, a crap shoot of fate. And then there was little attention to the "foreigners" who were really not the "foreigners" but the "residents", "citizens" who had these dangerous men outposted there and who put them in harm's way from their guns or the guns of the Taliban and you were conscience of that nightmare surreality for them, too.
best, libby
best, libby
Art, thanks for more commentary!!! I should rent Platoon and watch it. I did not see it but heard it told the real story. I remember the Deerhunter so vividly and that profound bonding between the men who came back from Vietnam. I think of the word "confusion" meaning "fusion with". Horror generates confusion and also fusion with ... each other especially I would imagine. Bunker survivalism.
I think Heller's Catch-22 and Vonnegut's books, Slaughterhouse-5 for one, really give a strong account of the insanity of war. Heller's book more than the movie, even, though the movie was good with Alan Arkin. My father always loved "From Here to Eternity". Said it was the story of his life.
Your Cranky friend, who was not cranky at all. Not even from losing two legs, dear God. Who died too young and tragically. Your jaw, the isometric tension of the hypervigilance required to keep you surviving, its staying power in your spirit and body and your physical reaction of grief, too, to your friend of course manifesting! So touched by your appreciation for your children and the children of military survivors. My dad was an army vet, saw a lot of combat and who has now passed on. My identity as the daughter of a vet and the daughter of a PTSD (though never addressed by family network) survivor as well as being daughter of an alcoholic dad (and the ocean of pain that brought on him and all of us) all go together. He was a brave man who had to struggle all his life and he was a wonderful role model at times and an emotional terrorist to his family at others. He had nightmares and flashbacks. During his war travels he was someone who was forced to demonize the enemy at times but he was also the type of person who had great curiosity and openness about people of different cultures and easily bonded with them and made those opportunities happen when he was in different regions of the world. Whenever his friends from the service called on the phone we knew it instantly from the tone of his voice. There was a love and a respect and a warmth in his voice with them we couldn't ever elicit from him in such a sustained way. Immediate and spontaneous joy and excitement from that bonding during those past times. His military reunions were precious to him and helped in his recovery from the wars and the grieving of fellows who died back then during the danger moments or over time. I love when you say re your children "they mediate a gentle wisdom". My dad shared a lot of his war experiences with his children, with me, some when I was a really young age (and sat in quiet horror and sometimes fear listening) but he needed to get it out and I was a sober little sounding board with two ears. Some survivors didn't want to talk at all. My uncles rarely if ever talked about their memories during the war. My father often seemed far more passionate about his past than his present. His "shell shock" readjustment period when he came home to the US was not, however, ever brought up by him or the family and I only once overheard it alluded to. I suspect he was shamed for it and the family network felt shamed by it and what an unjust shame that was!!!! and that macho stoic ethic still prevails, sadly.
thanks, art. best, libby
I think Heller's Catch-22 and Vonnegut's books, Slaughterhouse-5 for one, really give a strong account of the insanity of war. Heller's book more than the movie, even, though the movie was good with Alan Arkin. My father always loved "From Here to Eternity". Said it was the story of his life.
Your Cranky friend, who was not cranky at all. Not even from losing two legs, dear God. Who died too young and tragically. Your jaw, the isometric tension of the hypervigilance required to keep you surviving, its staying power in your spirit and body and your physical reaction of grief, too, to your friend of course manifesting! So touched by your appreciation for your children and the children of military survivors. My dad was an army vet, saw a lot of combat and who has now passed on. My identity as the daughter of a vet and the daughter of a PTSD (though never addressed by family network) survivor as well as being daughter of an alcoholic dad (and the ocean of pain that brought on him and all of us) all go together. He was a brave man who had to struggle all his life and he was a wonderful role model at times and an emotional terrorist to his family at others. He had nightmares and flashbacks. During his war travels he was someone who was forced to demonize the enemy at times but he was also the type of person who had great curiosity and openness about people of different cultures and easily bonded with them and made those opportunities happen when he was in different regions of the world. Whenever his friends from the service called on the phone we knew it instantly from the tone of his voice. There was a love and a respect and a warmth in his voice with them we couldn't ever elicit from him in such a sustained way. Immediate and spontaneous joy and excitement from that bonding during those past times. His military reunions were precious to him and helped in his recovery from the wars and the grieving of fellows who died back then during the danger moments or over time. I love when you say re your children "they mediate a gentle wisdom". My dad shared a lot of his war experiences with his children, with me, some when I was a really young age (and sat in quiet horror and sometimes fear listening) but he needed to get it out and I was a sober little sounding board with two ears. Some survivors didn't want to talk at all. My uncles rarely if ever talked about their memories during the war. My father often seemed far more passionate about his past than his present. His "shell shock" readjustment period when he came home to the US was not, however, ever brought up by him or the family and I only once overheard it alluded to. I suspect he was shamed for it and the family network felt shamed by it and what an unjust shame that was!!!! and that macho stoic ethic still prevails, sadly.
thanks, art. best, libby
Apt metaphor. Well argued rant.
thanks, matt, seriously and sincerely appreciated.
fwiw, though, "rant" always gives me a bit of an ouch feeling, and has that whiff of literary dismissiveness to it, even one labelled a "well argued" one, when I honestly (and emotionally, hah) think we exist in an anti-feeling anti-humanism society and we need some passion expressed and strong feelings (from non-Tea Partiers especially) about the profound dysfunction of our political and social culture and said infusion of feeling might even be regarded as a literary asset and not a deficit (directly or connotatively) when compared to the writings of the more coolly rational temperamental types! "Rat bastards" for example not such a hyperbolic leap any more considering what the rat bastards have perpetrated I'd say. best, libby :)
fwiw, though, "rant" always gives me a bit of an ouch feeling, and has that whiff of literary dismissiveness to it, even one labelled a "well argued" one, when I honestly (and emotionally, hah) think we exist in an anti-feeling anti-humanism society and we need some passion expressed and strong feelings (from non-Tea Partiers especially) about the profound dysfunction of our political and social culture and said infusion of feeling might even be regarded as a literary asset and not a deficit (directly or connotatively) when compared to the writings of the more coolly rational temperamental types! "Rat bastards" for example not such a hyperbolic leap any more considering what the rat bastards have perpetrated I'd say. best, libby :)
If you haven't seen it yet, you need to view this Harvard Law Record presentation by Ralph Nader and Reagan conservative Bruce Fein: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8kla2T0NQQ They both agree that impeaching Obama isn't enough - that we need to go after Congress for failing to impeach Obama for high crimes and misdemeanors. Nader says we need to start Occupying congressional offices.
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