Panic not: The devolution of our society continues, unabated.
The New York Review of Books provides a handy-dandy round-up of recent books penned by men and women who fought in Bush’s Totally Awesome Middle East Adventure. (Link above – I love the NYRB. Their Cliffs Notes for Ivy Leaguers analysis makes reading the titles themselves, like, totally redundant).
I expected tear-jerking tales of sexual harassment, dead babies, depression, alcoholism – the whole Lifetime Movie, eye-glazing, heart-rending juggernaut. My titillation was (for the most part) cruelly withheld.
But! The round-up (and the books) raised some interesting points.
If we’re going to rely on a spattering of anecdotal evidence alone (and why not?) it seems our men and women are not going to fight the baddies in the name of freedom. Rather, they’re going to escape their boring-ass lives. They’re going to the Middle East … because they’re bored … and they have low self-esteem.
“In these books, the idea of joining the military to defend America or uphold its values is largely absent. Rather, these soldiers signed up to escape dead-end jobs, failed relationships, broken families, bills, toothaches, and boredom. The armed forces offered a haven from the struggles and strains of life in modern-day America, a place to gain security and skills, discipline and self-esteem.”
Toothaches? fft.
On Easter, another gruesome milestone was reached in the war: 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead.
