Monday, June 7, 2010

I remember as a kid going to war movies, starring actors like John Wayne. There were the good guys and the bad enemy, clear divisions of right and wrong. Patriotism was rampant and there were no questions about us doing the right thing and occupying the high ground.

Until Vietnam, war protests weren’t heard of and the conduct of wars remained unquestioned. During that time I was a peripheral protester. Having gone through college, art school and two years of service, my friends and I questioned war and the motivations for war. In an interview with the Courier Express, I was described as “a disillusioned young man,” which I agreed with since I felt I had no illusions.

Better reporting on war has proven that my feelings were well founded. I now consider the fates of the many men and women who enter the service full of spunk and fervor only to return battered and stripped of their illusions. These “dark” themes have been a major part of my art, which now asks the viewer to face the reality of war.

Part of our reality is that we are always involved with numbers. We know our account balance, the mileage on our cars, our food budget and how much we pay in tax. We hear, too, almost every day, the number of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, which represents some of the costs of the war. Remembering all these numbers gives us a sense of security. Knowing those costs, we feel we have a handle on things.

War, like business, has a balance sheet. The number of casualties plus the dollars spent and other factors can be divided by our eagerness to prove a point, even if there really isn’t one. But there are hidden costs to doing business and hidden costs of war. They have been hidden under those flags that drape the returning coffins we seldom see. They are hidden in the wards of veterans’ hospitals where soldiers fight to regain their mobility or learn to use their prostheses. Sometimes they can be seen in the vacant looks of men walking down the street, home but not really there. These costs may turn up on police blotters, too, when a veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder goes off the deep end.

Soldiers engaged in war today often don’t know how to recognize the enemy. The person who befriends you one minute could get you killed the next. Riding in a Humvee at any time can be your last ride. Losing a friend is the worst. Under these pressures, soldiers can and do commit immoral actions.

Troops are recycled time and again through this crazy landscape and the results of all these actions have yet to be calculated. There is no number for the men who have committed suicide. Depending on who calculates these numbers, they vary up to a point that exceeds those killed in combat. If things are that bad, how can those disillusioned men and women be expected to come home and resume a normal life?

In the end, we don’t know what the cost of war is. We have been too insulated. We’re fighting our own small battles with life and not paying close attention. We can, however, get a glimpse of that cost if we look into the eyes of a father or a mother who has just been told that his or her son is not coming home from the war. There is no number for that cost. We should consider this before we decide that war is the answer.

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