“When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.” Oscar Wilde

“The road these soldiers went down took away their inner virginity–innocence never to be regained

Douglas Barber

War has a devastating effect on soldiers and their loved ones. In the last few weeks I have been reading poems and memoirs, news websites and military blogs. We’ve reviewed authors such as Rupert Brookes who glorified war for means of propaganda rather then, portraying the reality of war. We’ve also read the memoirs of Vera Brittain in a Testament of Youth who displays the real image of a female during World War I. While the war we are fighting in Iraq is not as brutal as World War I in the means of man fighting man directly, I find the psychological aspects of war still harshly influencing the young mans’ life.

While previously we discussed the poetry of three men during the World War I the prior week, I felt much more influenced by the writing of Vera Brittain. During this chapter I was emotionally affected by the psychological effects of war upon the young soldiers. Perhaps this was due to my friend who recently returned home from the fight in Iraq, and is experiencing constant nightmares and fear of thunderstorms; or perhaps it was due the article Exodus vs. Institutionalization from The Purgatorium. Although, the recently new blog from Purgatorium included sentences to draw in the reader with anaphora’s and climax’s similar to the poems from Rupert Brooke’s, this blog did not glorify war. Rather, The Purgatorium portrays war as a unforgiving wasteland with devastating affects on soldiers. Moreover, the blog realistically describes how soldiers are affected when they return home.

“I don’t want to be on those same streets, except be looking for dudes with guns on rooftops or in windows. I don’t want to cruise the main drag thinking, “Fucking Christ! This bastard is WAY too close to us! 100 meters, you dumb cocksucker! What’s he trying to get lit up? That car could be loaded with explosives! What? I’m back in the World? Ha, oh man, ha ha ha, that’s right. Good thing you’re driving huh? “

Whether or not a person expresses their emotional experiences that occurred during the war, or if they go on with life stating that nothing has changed and everything is the same…obviously it is not! News articles, personal testaments, and literature read in-class do not portray people returning home, going to college and starting family; therefore, living happier ever after. The Purgatorium and Testaments of Youth both expose the cruel reality that results from war. Testament of Youth ,Verra states, “In desperation I begun to look carefully through his letters for every vivid word picture…which suggested that no merely the body but the spirit that I desired was still in the process of survival.”The person writing the blog article Exodus vs. Institutionalization describes how he will not return home for his vacation. He states could not handle the sorrow and the overall emotional trip that occurs from seeing their loved ones for such a brief period. The “emotional trip,” the combat fatigue or the flashbacks that Exodus vs. Institutionalization article mention was described in 2004 by MSNBC.

The MSNBC news article reported the repercussions of serving our nation in the war has resulted in one out of eight soldiers returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder. Moreover, the article stated many soldiers health problems go without aid, since military personal do not report symptoms. Therefore, while, the lucky courageous soldiers that valiantly fight our nations war and return home, as hero’s they do not return home the same. Rather the innocent child they left as, they return home as troubled sleepless soldier lost in their nightmares to fight their own fight back to stability.