war

It's easy to talk about war from afar in your living room, on a talk show, in a term paper for school but on the front line you can smell death. My father was honored for bravery in World War II. He almost never mentioned the South Pacific. I could never find his medal but I do have the letter, detailing his heroism. He was a marine, lying about his age to get in the service at 17. At 19, I was a pseudo hippie, protesting the Vietnam War on truly shoddy motives. I could espouse how despicable and immoral it was to send boys off to die in an unjustified enterprise but let's be honest, I was a coward who took a 2-S deferment to go to college instead of the service and I was protesting mainly for hippie girls and decent concerts. I have always been against wars but at the same time respect the brave souls who agree to sacrifice their lives for the rest of their countrymen. I despise those who make the decisions to wage war especially when their motives are suspect and selfish. If my father was alive he would cringe at the news detailing the marines killed in Iraq, followed by a longer report on movie star Tom Cruise's lust for a girl who could be mistaken for his daughter. It's disgusting.