Reflections of a Serious Sort

Honestly, when it comes to the present war our great country is going through, I cannot say I have had much of an opinion. Sure, I remember 9/11. I remember the images on the television, the news reports, and all the tears that came afterward. I was in the seventh grade, music class. Everything is kind of a still frame for that time; I remember that for ever single class for almost a week, all we would do is watch the news. But despite all that, I never really formed an opinion about the situation our country was going into.

Everything feels really disconnected when I try to think about the war and my opinions on it. I do not like fighting; do not like the thought of people dieing, especially for me when I have no idea what the fighting is for. But at the same time, I know I should care and should hold an opinion. It is like a continuum. The war has never touched me personally, has never had a direct event in my life, so I do not feel connected to it. Several of my friends are military wives and have to deal with the horrors daily. I don’t.

For these reasons, I have never held much of an opinion of war. I am not connected, and when I try to understand all the political jargon, I get lost. So I tend to stick to my original statement of not having an opinion. I do not like war, but because I do not understand the purposes or everything involved, I do not place myself in one category or another.

Reading the Military blog has not changed that. These men and women who have taken the time to share their stories and opinions are stronger than I will ever be. But they did not force me to change my views of the war. Instead, they reinforced the idea that I have no clue what is going on, and can never possibly understand the lives of those who live war.

In fact, I feel more than ever that I will never understand. Although the Milblog has not changed my opinion of the war, it has made me more compassionate to those men and women who serve. Supporting war should not be about supporting an idea or belief. It should be about people, individuals and what they live. In my opinion, I do not have to support the war, or be against it even, to feel compassion and a desire to help those who fight in it. My opinion of a war has nothing to do with it. In the long run, I can hate the fighting for a cause I don’t understand till my dieing day, but it will not make a difference. I am one person, one in millions who either support or do not support the conflict our country is in. Instead, I choose to have a neutral ideal, neither hating or liking the war. But no matter what I will support those people fighting. The Milblog has shown me I can do no less for those people that fight for something I will never understand, but they believe in wholeheartedly.