Now I’m on a war kick. $0.99 movies don’t go well with no free time.

March 23, 2003

Well OK, I’m done ranting about war for now. I got a lot of comments about my last post, both positive and negative, though mostly positive. It seems that many people that I talk with feel exactly the same way as I do, so I’m glad I’m not alone. Both my parents expressed concern for one reason or another, but I’m really OK. Things had come to a head, and I was concerned how things were going. I guess I had my own question answered this week. I watched with great interest at first, but I’ve decided not to follow the news with as much gusto as I have in the past. Honestly, I just don’t want to know. The story that came out last night and is still developing is the soldier who apparently “fragged” his own unit with grenades in camp, killing one and wounding about twelve or so. I was a bit shocked by that, and I’ll get to that in a bit.

We talked about the “war” in my African Politics class on Friday, setting aside our timetable for everything else. It’s not that it has to do with Africa, but my teacher is the head of the International Relations department here, and one of the best teachers I’ve had here. She put forth a theory about the war that made sense, one that’s been floating around the academic community for a bit and actually makes sense to me. In a nutshell, it comes down to the US getting a better foothold in the Middle East as a first step towards invading Syria as our next stop in the War on Terrorism. I know that’s pretty weak, but it would completely guarantee the safety of Israel in that case, and besides, if we’re going to continue this farce of fighting terrorism, who’s a more likely target? Syria or North Korea? My money’s on Syria. Did you know that more than 66% of Americans now think that Saddam Hussein was one of the key people responsible for September 11th and that most of the hijackers were Iraqi? Amazing how quickly people forget. I’m wondering if we DO invade Syria, what the justification will be for that.

Which brings me to my next point. How do you know when you’ve gone too far? How do you see past the rhetoric and propaganda and know what’s right? I guess that’s part of the problem. I see people around the world (even in the country here) protesting against the US and our actions, and while I know that people will always not like the US, this seems to be different. I can’t put my finger on why. At what point would the people of Germany and Austria said “no more” to Hitler? They let him go a long ways as it was, but when do a people put their foot down and say “enough”? When CAN they? Mind you, I’m not comparing Bush to Hitler, but the analogy sprung to mind because protestors around the world have drawn the comparison themselves and it’s just something that stuck out. One country was easy in this terrorism war, two has been a stretch, but how can the administration justify three countries that we would invade and topple? I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Things haven’t been as clear to me as they have in the past, specifically about war, so I’ve been watching movies to help me understand things a bit more. I rented the entire series of “Band of Brothers” and I’ve rabidly been watching those (I’m through six episodes already), plus Apocolypse Now: Redux, Platoon, and Empire of the Sun. Hollywood Video has had a rental deal of all movies being $0.99, so I’ve taken advantage of it, obviously. I also got Road to Perdition and The Bourne Identity, but those don’t really fit in to the same category. I might go back when I’m done with these and get Black Hawk Down and Full Metal Jacket as well. It’s been…illumniating, so far. I’ve never seen any of them save for Empire of the Sun, though it’s been many years since I watched that all the way through. I may top off the collection with The Thin Red Line and my own copy of Saving Private Ryan. I’m not learning anything about war per se, but I’m beginning to understand war a bit more, and the conditions that people live in. I feel like I know the people in Easy Company, 101st Airborne that “Band of Brothers” is about, and that’s why I was so shocked to read about the US soldier killing other US soldiers deliberately, apparently, because he was from the 101st. The 101st played one of the biggest roles in World War II as far as being in the right place at the right time (wrong place at the wrong time?), and they have a very distinguished history. These are the guys that jumped into Normandy before D-Day. I’ve spent the last three or four days trying to understand war, why we fight and what it’s like, but I can’t wrap my head around that. Maybe there will be more that comes out later. Until then, I’ll return to my movies. I find them more comforting than the news, at least, because I know that they’re fictional for the most part (with the exception of “Band of Brothers”) or at least long over with. Maybe I’ll switch to The Bourne Identity so that I’m not thinking about things as much.

My presentation on Thursday went quite well, actually. I was expecting to have to talk to the class and answer questions from the professor like everyone else who’s done the same thing did, but instead she broke the class up into small groups, gave each of them a question on the reading, and my partner and I just had to walk around and talk with the groups, making sure they could answer the question they had been given. What was really funny was that the groups had to get up in front of the class and speak, but I didn’t have to go anywhere. That was a great relief, though I was prepared for the class pretty well. I turned in my first draft of my final paper for my senior seminar Econ class, but it was only six pages. That’s OK, no harm done. I have more than a month until the final is due.

Well, that’s about it for now. I think I’m going to get some food into me and resume my movie-watching. Have good day everyone.

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