The Forever War - book

Man dragging pot-bellied pig
along street to “meet women,”
charged with animal cruelty.

I have just finished reading The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (Knopf, 2008). Filkins is a war correspondent who spent years in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has given us an eloquent account of what he saw and experienced. His account is what you would expect from a war correspondent reporting on a war. That is, the book is mostly a series of anecdotes about what happened to those he came to know, whether marines, army, civilians, sheiks. kidnappers, terrorists, important people such as Paul Bremer, Ahmad Chalabi, Bill Richardson, and many more of the most important players in the “wars,”. It gives one insight into just how difficult and enormously complicated the situation was and is in those troubled lands. As you might well suspect, it is not a pleasant account to read, being in large measure an account of shooting, explosions, tanks and helicopters, Humvees and snipers, arms and legs and severed heads, torture, and corpses by the hundreds; all of the grisly business of violent never-ending warfare you would expect from a front-line correspondent with a ring-side seat at the horrors unleashed by stupid and greedy leaders with highly questionable motives. It is much to Filkins credit that he did not match his written descriptions with the thousands of truly awful photographs he must have.

I think the most interesting feature of the book is that it has plenty of characters but there is no story line or plot, nor is there any moralizing or finger pointing. It is mostly just disjointed anecdotes about the various horrors he witnessed or the political machinations he observed. In that sense I suspect the book mirrors the actual situation as it is ongoing – mostly chaos. It is a fascinating record of the obvious problems involved in sending young monolingual American soldiers and marines into a country and culture they know absolutely nothing about, to bring democracy to a nation that has never experienced it, didn’t ask for it, and do not all agree that they even want it. It is also an expose of the greed, duplicity, and behind the scenes maneuvering for power and influence. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how bad things must be in Iraq. Filkins fine account makes me realize things are even much worse than I imagined.

Wonderful news! President Obama has apparently signed a law that makes it virtually impossible for the U.S. to use or export cluster bombs, thus bringing the U.S. closer to the 100 nations that have already signed an agreement not to use them. I have never understood what possible justification there could be for using weapons of this kind, especially when it is known they can last for so long and that children are by far the most vulnerable. How great it is!

There are some things Obama has done (perhaps not done) that I do not fully understand. But insofar as he is on a mission to restore the American middle class, and to restore American credibility in the world, I must say I remain enthusiastic about his policies so far, and even more pleased with the Bush policies t that he has abolished. Bush/Cheney were on course to destroy our wonderful nation entirely, Obama must have been sent by the Great Mystery to save us, or so it seems.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing,
fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved,
and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

TILT:
Skunks have poor vision and cannot see more than about three yards away.