life during wartime :: essays research papers

Thithers no subject I underside say about the parade of still pictures, the faces on the television except, perhaps, that they only seemed to share a fierce pride in their eyes, photographed for the first clock time in their Marine Dress Blues. Surely their families are proud of them. I certainly am, and I never got to know any of them. And now, I never will.Names scroll in little yellow letters across the bottom of our glowing screens Sergeants, and Captains, and Privates. These hands have died for us. More will follow. We asked them to go, and they went. in all across this nation -- here and there, sparkling across the map standardized fireflies on a summer night sedans are slowly curlicue to a stop outside of small, modest homes. Men in same emerge, straighten their tunics, and walk slowly up driveways. Doorbells are rung. Maybe here and there smiles will evaporate in shock and surprise as doors are opened, but more likely the face will be genius full of stunned reali zation that the very worst thing in the whole world has happened. And children will be sent to their rooms. And the men will speak in somber, respectful tones. And sons and mothers and fathers and wives will be told that the one thing they love more than anything in this world has been taken outdoor(a) from them, that their sons and daughters will not be coming home, that their fathers or mothers have departed away and will never come back, not ever. Why do we do this? What could possibly be worth this?The war is an abject and blab out failure. What everyone thought would be a quick, decisive victory has turned into an upset series of reversals. The enemy, -- a ragtag, badly-fed collection of hotheads and fanatics has failed to be shocked and awed by the close to magnificent military machine ever fielded. Their dogged foe has shown us the futility of the idea that a nation of millions could ever be suppress and administered, no matter what obscene price we are willing to co ok up in blood and money.The President of the United States is a buffoon, an idiot, a serviceman barely able to speak the English language. His vice president is a little-seen, widely despised enigma and his chief military advisor a wild-eyed warmonger. Only his Secretary of State offers any hope of redemption, for he at least is a reasonable, well-educated man, a man most thought would have made a far, far better plectrum for Chief Executive.