Ryan Smithson's Ghost Of War

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.

In the flash fiction story “Three Soldiers,” by Bruce Holland Rogers, a United States Marine sergeant identifies traumatic events that he experienced during war and describes his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. The text is broken up into three sections. Each section relates a violent wartime situation with a common nonviolent situation. The author uses this format of text and these juxtapositions of pairs of similar events to highlight the difficulty the sergeant has with distinguishing between them and describe the struggle of overcoming PTSD.

The psychological effects, the mentality of fighting and killing another human, and the sheer decimation of human values is what makes war atrocious. War is not only fought on the battlefield though. This book also describes the feelings of a soldier fighting his own demons that war has brought on. The battle that the soldier has with himself, is almost if not more damaging than the physical battle of war. He will never forget his experience with battle, no matter how hard he tries the memories of artillery, blood, and death cannot be erased. “I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.” (Sledge). This struggle still happens to soldiers today. Sledge’s words of the struggles still captures the effects of warfare that lingers today. The other effects that war has on the men is the instability that surrounds them at every hour of the day. They are either engaged in battle having bullets and artillery fired at them, or waiting for battle just so they can be deposited back in the pressure cooker of survival. “Lying in a foxhole sweating out an enemy artillery or mortar barrage or waiting to dash across open ground under machine-gun or artillery fire defied any concept of time.”

War is a traumatizing experience for anyone, but especially for children. A Long Way Gone demonstrates how a child’s innocence can be taken away

The thought of going to war excites many young men that have not experienced or have been a part of one. Individuals want to find a way out of the routine, mundane lifestyle that plagues many suburban households. People that just want some excitement enlist in a military branch that will not benefit them or anyone for that matter. In Philip Caputo’s book titled A Rumor of War, the true side of how war demolishes the human spirit is shown. His nonfiction novel captures the nasty side to war. Philip informs us how the mentality of a young man can change with the constant thought of death and fear as a daily ritual. Men do not think about death occurring to them at a young age. This changes when death is surrounding them on a daily basis during wartime. Caputo intended to inform the young public about the horrible nature of war. Mistakes are doomed to repeat themselves if people are not well informed and Caputo is trying to avoid future mistakes. Death surrounded him and many of his comrades during the Vietnam War. When the life of anyone is on the line, one tends to do drastic and sometimes unthinkable things to cope with the fear of death.

Beginning my love of reading an early age, I was never the type of child who was drawn to fictional stories. As an 8 year-old child in West Virginia, I was recognized by the local library for my love of biographies, autobiographies and recollections of world events. This love has continued throughout my adult life, desiring to read novels such as “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore rather than watch the major motion picture “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Even though the motion picture received multiple awards, when reading the recollection of Mr. Moore’s accounts, the feeling of loss, distress, anxiety and fear can be felt in each word that he has written while reliving this horrendous war.

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

It all began in 2003 when President Bush declared war on Iraq. He declared that, “Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force” (Bush). Unfortunately, the war in Iraq became one of the longest and most controversial wars fought by America. Thanks to the sacrifices of the men and women in uniform, the mission ended in 2011. However, this war still lives in the hearts of those that fought for the lives of others. In Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-traumatic stress disorder, Author, Sargent Clint Van Winkle is one of those men that fought and is still fighting his own mental battle of the pass war. Despite all the uncertainties of whether the war was worth fighting for or not, Sargent Van Winkle favored the War against Terror, because he enjoyed the life of combat, being a Marine and the brotherhood that came along with survival.

To the United States, World War II is believed to be a good war, and why wouldn’t it be considered as such? During World War II, in addition to stopping mass genocide and stopping the spread of Nazism and Fascism, the United States beat Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the U.S. was no longer in the Depression and the United States became a world power. However, in “The Best War Ever,” Michael C.C. Adams argues that as a result of Hollywood’s glamorization of the war, government propaganda/censorship, and the widespread of economic prosperity, Americans were kept in the dark about the truth regarding World War II resulting in the popular belief and myth that World War II was a good war.

In the story “Redeployment by Phil Klay, the narrator was deployed in Iraq for a period of 7 months, during the deployment, he sees many dark stuffs and done many. As result of these events, the narrator is impacted in many ways. The experience of war transforms his views on a normal social life in america, therefore makes his readaptation to society challenging.

Life in the military is hard, especially for children. Unfortunately, Ugandan children are forced to become soldiers by the warlord Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). A popular YouTube video was created to raise awareness about Kony and his LRA’s actions. This video, Kony 2012, is described in an editorial by John Naughton in the Observer in March 2012. The editorial explains the origin, context, content, and effects of the video. Ishmael Beah depicted the harsh life of a soldier in his book, A Long Way Gone, written in 2008. In it, he describes his training as a new recruit and his fear when he first held a gun. While both the editorial and book have the topic of the military, they convey information differently.

Before the Vietnam War, Americans were naive about the ideas of war. They believed the soldiers were heroes who fought in a glorious and just war, not evildoers who committed acts of inhumanity. Americans were infatuated by the false impression of war they had. This speaks on a greater scale of the level shock they received from learning the true atrocities of the Vietnam War. Young soldiers were not exempt from this realization. In Platoon, Chris Taylor represents this mentality and its deterioration as he faces the grim reality of war.

The article “Generation Kill” is written by Ewan Wright in 2004 and the author follows a platoon of US Marines in their advance through the Iraq war. Through the text there is given a characterization of the soldiers and how they respond to unaccustomed episodes that war brings.

When people think of the military, they often think about the time they spend over in another country, hoping they make it back alive. No one has ever considered the possibility that they may have died inside. Soldiers are reborn through war, often seeing through the eyes of someone else. In “Soldier’s home” by Ernest Hemingway, the author illustrates how a person who has been through war can change dramatically if enough time has passed. This story tells of a man named Harold (nick name: Krebs) who joined the marines and has finally come back after two years. Krebs is a lost man who feels it’s too complicated to adjust to the normal way of living and is pressured by his parents.