a soldier for a brother

The War on Terror is a topic that never seems to go away. One simply cannot make it through thirty minutes of headline news without hearing about another bomb going off in Baghdad or about the capture of another insurgent whose name is impossible to pronounce. Even though we invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in March 2003, the war seems to be the sum of the American existence still. And that existence is a tumultuous one. Although America united in an overwhelming way in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, times have changed. The war that began with a collective, righteous anger now has a popularity level not unlike that of the Vietnam War.

And it is in the midst of these discouraging circumstances on the home front that I find myself with a brother in Iraq. In October 2007, Joshua was deployed, and needless to say, at that moment, the word “war” took on a new, and much more poignant, meaning for my family and I.

People often ask, “What is it like to have a brother in Iraq?” To put it simply, there is no remedy to political apathy as successful as a loved one going to war. When a properly stoic news anchor announces that a Marine unit was ambushed, we gather around the television. When the telephone rings, we scramble for it. When we pray, we have a fervor that was hitherto unknown to us. Suddenly, the war is one in which my family and I are personally involved. The fact that my brother is putting his life on the line each day for everyone from the cashier I exchange greetings with in Wal-Mart to the celebrities I see angrily shaking their fists at President Bush makes this war one that is literally in my face every day.

The unpopularity of the war is likewise inescapable. In President Bush’s recent and final State of the Union Address, he praised American troops, saying, “Our military…in Iraq are performing with courage and distinction, and they have the gratitude of our whole nation.” But while I clapped along with Congress, I wondered skeptically, “Do they?”

Some say that you can support the troops without supporting the war, but with a brother who is part of those troops, I realize how impossible it is to separate them from their mission. As funding for the war fluctuates and Cindy Sheehans pop up now and again, the country has grown tired of the resolve that a war on such a broad and unprincipled thing as terror takes, making it difficult for those of us sending letters and boxes to Iraq to remind people without losing our tempers that “Freedom is not free.” The men and women fighting this War on Terror are more than names in faraway places. They are more than pawns on a diplomatic chessboard. They are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and – perhaps most hard-hitting of all for the patriots still out there – fellow Americans.

So, what does it mean to have a brother fighting in an unpopular war? It means that I ignore the “unpopular” part and use that otherwise wasted time shouting, “Semper Fi!” There is a difference between getting caught up in the emotional turmoil of a few outspoken individuals and getting involved in a way that boosts morale and gets the job done. I would much rather do the latter.

February 4, 2008
(article for The Review, Laurel, MS, newspaper)