The Dichotomy

How does it affect me if Americans don’t support the war?

I asked myself that last night. You see, as I write this blog, I think that sometimes my comments come across as more “political” than they are intended. You see, at some level, it’s hard not to believe in what we’re doing over here- it would make things much more stressful if I didn’t. And yet we’re in a time when very few Americans believe in what we’re doing over here. Thus, it creates a bit of a mental hurdle to overcome.

As an example, think about your job or schooling: let’s say you enjoy your job. It’s stressful, but you believe it’s making a difference. You’re proud to be a part of the company. But you see that polling conducted by a consumer firm shows that most people think your product is useless, or even possibly unethical. You would begin to have a bit of a mental split inside your own head, trying to reconcile something you know, with the opinions of others about the same thing, though those opinions might be at a variance. You see your business from the inside, and you see it in ways that others do not.

I think this is the dilemma for many Soldiers. It is for me, to be frank. Don’t misunderstand: my job, as a chaplain, can be effective even if I personally don’t support the war. I am called to nourish the living, care for the wounded, and honor the dead. I can do that regardless of what I think about the politics behind the war. Yet, I also happen to think the war is the right thing to be doing. That doesn’t make my job worthwhile, but it certainly makes it more worthwhile. I hope that makes sense. It would be much more difficult to do my job if I thought what we were doing was wrong, or evil.

Yet, this is what the public projects on us. If you say the war in immoral, and that we came for the wrong reasons, and that we’re doing the wrong thing, you have to understand that it will affect those actually conducting the war! (and I don’t say that to change the opinions of those against the war; I say it to explain some of the stress some of the forms the debate causes Soldiers)

I don’t offer any of this as a solution or even to suggest a solution. I just know that I’m a former news junkie who has by and large stopped watching the news. There is too much of a disconnect between what I see/hear here, and what I see reported on the news. And what is being reported has captured the hearts and minds of the nation, and we can’t contend with that.