On Warfare

As an actor, I have elected to have a life of constant variety when it comes to employment. Not a single week goes by where my routine is identical to the last, and for someone who wasn’t exactly the most attentive adolescent over long stretches of time, this system is particularly advantageous. My nights often consist of rehearsals, performances, auditions, or binge watching Mad Men, and rather than a typical 9-5 day job, I customarily enjoy the 7-2 schedule of a substitute teacher. Subbing provides me with an incomparable degree of flexibility to pursue artistic ventures, and occasionally, it offers me the opportunity to learn something from the students that I’m meant to instruct.

Today, I was assigned to an English class where they are currently making their way through The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Never having heard of much less read this book before, I decided to flip through the introductory pages before the first bell. To my immediate surprise, I discovered that the book was set up as a series of vignettes about the Vietnam War. From the outside, my level of surprise may appear unwarranted, but my initial thought after reading this was simple.

I don’t remember talking about Vietnam in school. Ever.

The Vietnam War strikes me in a particularly tangible way, because my dad served in the Air Force during the conflict. By the time he reached the age I am now, he had already completed his military service and was adjusting back to civilian life stateside despite the often unmentionable terrors that he witnessed over there. I will spare the specifics of said encounters in this post – those stories are for us, and I am happy to leave that line uncrossed – but as I got older and was allowed more and more information about his time overseas, I realized that not only had I not been instructed about Vietnam as a teenager…I had been spared many truths about war as a whole.

When the new generation talks about war, their conversations tend to fall in two major categories: The Current War or THE War. Thanks to films like Saving Private Ryan and Fury as well as game franchises like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, I would argue that most of the country has witnessed the horrors of World War II through the rosy lens of a Hollywood camera. There were Nazis, and there were heroes that killed Nazis. That’s about the gist of it. I suppose WWII is relatively safe to discuss because of that black and white line, but then again, rarely is the concept of the United States being the last major Ally to join the war mentioned during these talks. And why would it? Tyranny was destroyed, Hitler assassinated himself, and the Golden Generation was welcomed back with open arms.

That was the last time such a procession would accompany the return of our soldiers for a while. The Korean War and the Vietnam War occurred at a time of monumental change within the United States. No longer were people that condemned war considered “unpatriotic” or even “treasonous” for voicing their especially strong opinions. Unfortunately, while the importance of free speech cannot be denied, many of these objections to the war were expressed through harassment of the soldiers that had no choice but to go.

Soldiers like my dad.

The idea of soldiers from Iraq or Afghanistan still surprises him every once in a while, because from the second he stepped back onto American soil a lifetime ago, he was demonized by the people burning the flag to which he had sworn allegiance. Protesters covered him in spit as “babykiller” slid venomously off of their tongues, and all the potential joy of a safe return was vigorously ripped away from his grasp within minutes. Still a boy in the eyes of many, my dad was forced to adjust to a society that cursed the friends he had lost when they had praised the return of heroes less than thirty years before.

Luckily, the days of such public condemnation of military service seem to have faded from our national conscience. Opinions on the nobility of such action vary considerably from person to person, but these debates appear to have become exactly that – debates. People discuss their stance on the military action openly, and it would be ignorant to claim that these talks consistently end in peaceful disagreement, but as a culture, we can’t deny that a magnificent effort has been put into place to maintain the respect of those who have willingly or unwillingly played their part.

Personally, I don’t know where I stand on the concept of war. The past three generations of my family have fought on behalf of the United States, but I find myself the first son that was born without the burden of the draft. I know that my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather served honorably, but that particular avenue of service never held any interest for me. Some of my best friends have served overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, and regardless of my feelings on that conflict, I respect them because of the men that I know them to be.

Does this mean that I think all soldiers who have ever served are heroes? Not at all. Does this mean that I think all soldiers who have ever served are immoral? Not at all. To judge a person based solely on the orders they were given is ignorant, but to glorify a man simply because he wore a uniform is no better. In my life, I will continue to value each person based on who they are, what they do, and their ability to learn and adapt until their dying day.

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.” – Bertrand Russell