This weekend I saw the movie Lone Survivor. Gut wrenching! Midway through the movie tears were flowing. Dredging up childhood memories and shame.
The Vietnam War nightly was in American living rooms, daily in newspapers and monthly on magazine covers. A constant reminder that Americans were dying while we sat in the comfort of our living rooms. As the war dragged on. Americans’ consciences no longer could tolerate the brutality of death. Due in part to inept military and congressional leadership.
Granted, all movies are dramatizations of actual events. Fictionalized to make the movie entertaining. As in Vietnam, the deaths of the men in Lone Survivor were also in part due to inept congressional and military leadership.
Congress, which refuses to adequately fund a war. Sending military service personnel into a war zone with faulty and insufficient equipment. Military commanders and strategiests failing to communicate and coordinate military campains. Betraying not only the men and women under their command but also their families.
The American media should also be ashamed of their biased and limited coverage of this war. Choosing to be a mouthpiece for special interests. Instead of uncovering the truth and objectively reporting it. And shame on us Americans, me included. Who passively sit in the comfort and warmth of our living rooms. While American military personnel are treated as expendable— causalities of war.
Lone Survivor reminds us that war is hell! Warning us the day Americans’ hearts become numb to war, death and destruction. That is the day America becomes a harbinger of death instead of life.
Be a VOICE in the deafening sound of sameness!
letsloveothers 