Far Away from the Harsh Realities of War

I wish I could write that I am more knowledgeable about the war in Iraq, but in all honesty, I feel very distant from the conflict. I live in the rural countryside of New Jersey, an environment far different from the desert of Iraq and the harsh realities that the soldiers must face over there. My family does not have any direct connection to war and I don’t know anyone personally who is fighting.

Any news I read about the war is on the front page of The Star Ledger, our newspaper back home, or the headlines of CNN. Sadly it seems, the media considers the scandals of entertainment artists more important than an event as huge as a war. Articles on Britney Spears seem to be much more prevalent than articles on Iraq war veterans and the day-to-day combat in the Middle East. Sometimes I actually forget we’re in the midst of a real war because it isn’t really “advertised.” News reports don’t display a sense of urgency regarding the conflict and the only times I hear about it are when a large number of American soldiers are killed in a short period of time or when the presidential candidates have their debates on the future of Iraq. I think the newspapers do censor a lot of the gory details of the war and are biased in what information they print. I sometimes wonder how much the government influences the media when printing stories about Iraq. If all of the news and information was out on the table, the government may appear even more unfavorable than they do now.

I saw the movie Stop Loss last weekend and it was the first movie I had seen relating to the Iraq war. I was completely unaware of the term stop-loss before seeing the movie. Stop-Loss is a policy used by the U.S. Army to keep soldiers in the military after their terms have ended. While every stop-lossed soldier’s story is different, I think that many soldiers probably have the same struggles and mental impacts of the war that the main character had in the movie. The fact that the movie was made by MTV made me a little weary of how accurate the movie was going to be, but after I saw the film I did some research on “stop-lossing” and realized that it wasn’t as exaggerated as I thought it might have been. It makes me angry to think that soldiers are losing their own freedoms to try and gain freedoms for a country that may or may not want the freedom the U.S. is forcefully trying to give them. A soldier may have dutifully served for several tours over to Iraq, but when his contract is over, the military tells him/her they have to go back, they have no choice.

It frustrates me because I feel helpless with this war. Whether I am informed or not, the future of the war is up to the government. The war doesn’t have that big of an effect on me or my family, but maybe it will soon. Our economy is struggling and we still need to finance the war. Maybe one day we will have a draft. I think the upcoming presidential election will determine how much we are impacted by the war in the future.