The War I Never See on TV

I was flipping channels the other night trying to brainlessly unwind and came across the NewsHour on PBS. They were showing a piece on combat stress. As a preface to the guests--two therapists and former soldiers who now work with personnel returning from Iraq--they ran a clip from British journalist Sean Smith. The clip embedded in this post is not the one on PBS--you can get to that by going to PBS via the title of this post--but it does give you a sense of what Sean Smith is producing.

I guess I was taken a back. The footage was so intimate and so brutal. The faces and voices in the footage were altogether human--they were real people, not the abstractions that our networks give us that have allowed me to keep a safe distance from the war. I was stunned that even in the best of our network news coverage, I've received NOTHING that tells us as much about what the War in Iraq looks and feels like as I got in 5 minutes of Smith's reporting.

I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude for the sacrifices of the soldiers--how gritty and exhausting and frustrating and nerve-wracking their work is. I will never do anything so hard in my life.

But I was also quite sure that no one should ever have to do what these soldiers are doing. It struck me as a perversion of human nature, that mothers and fathers, sons and daughters should be trained and sent to kill another human being.

I don't mean to sound naive about the reality of war and the prevalence of sin that necessitates standing armies and armed police. But I'm torn over the top of recognizing the necessity of a well-trained army and hating what service in such an army at war can do to the human soul. I come from a family with two grandfathers--one of whom was a POW in WWII, the other was a consciencious objector. I see the honor, nobility, and sacrifice of both stances.

I wonder how to live in a way that truly honors both. Is there truly a way to love the warrior and hate the war?