Since the continuing discussion on the sniper movie will continue for a while, I might as well chime in with my 2 cents worth.
I have not seen it or read the book so my view is just on the effects that it is having on the public.
First and foremost is my concern that it is a recruitment tool the military must be drooling over. Hero, hero, hero, hero. Such an overused word.
Here it is used in a much different context.
“My personal hero is a little lady. She gets up in the morning, puts on her dress and her pearl white gloves, goes to a bus stop, gets on a bus, and sits in the seventh row. Some big guys get on the bus and say, "Go to the back." That lady reached down inside of herself, overcame all the fear in the world, and just said, "No." Rosa Parks changed this world, and nobody gave her a medal.”
Paul “Buddy” Bucha
Medal of Honor recipient
Up until now most of the use of the word "Hero" has been used to describe all of the returning service members who served in the latest clusterfucks. Now there is a personification up on the big screen to seduce the gullible and ignorant into the "glory" of combat and the righteousness of the Iraq invasion. (Or maybe not since I haven't seen it.) But from the push back of the war enthusiasts and that
Anti-Muslim threats skyrocket in wake of film’s release, it sure seem that way.
Will the young see this as their path to glory? Their chance to prove their manhood? Will the continued hero worship convince more cannon fodder to join up? A question I don't have the answer to but from past experience it seems it will.
The title of this diary is from this poem.
"Baring the trees"
The dead hang
from the dead like leaves
upon an ashen tree—
waiting for their deep autumn
so that they may open
their withering mouths
and fall, but the sad
season never arrives.
There is always a heavy
heat; always bullets
in a rifle; always a young
finger to slap
a trigger; forever
a fresh body to fasten
to a generation.
Gerardo Mena 2012