Contemporary Connections: Iraq Soldiers/War

The Farming of Bones By Edwidge Danticat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3084407.stm

        The article I found above, has some interesting parts in it. Towards the end of the article there are different categories such as their holiday time,  their free time, communication with home, and daily chores. The article talks about what is expected of the soldiers in Iraq and what their routines and lifestyles are like.

         I connected the book we are reading and compared the life styles of the characters in the novel to the soldiers in Iraq. Amabelle portrays a series of imagery to express to the reader of the living conditions she is under. It made me think about how the soldiers are put in these terrible conditons to help our country prosper. However, people in other countries have a completely different life style as well. Granted, other countries' lifestyles are believed to be good, but we view their lifestyle differently. 

         Resources, basic rights, living conditions are viewed differently throughout the world. Iraq natives are used to their conditions and have dealt with them for years. These same conditions we view as harsh living areas,and we have send our troops to live and work there. When people agree with war or support it, I believe that is okay, however we should look past that aspect and think about the soldiers and what they chose to do for us.

         While reading The Farming of Bones, I thought about the characters’ everyday life and how they are used to the harsh conditions due to the conflict they face with. It makes me appreciate American citizens and how they leave their homes to go overseas, and move into a similar lifestyle that Amabelle experiences.
         Survival was a key connection within my contemporary context. When Amabelle and her group made the journey to the mountain, they were trying to survive death. Our troops in Iraq are constantly faced with death, and have to fight for our country in order to survive.
        The characters in the book saw a massacre where the capital was on fire. This was another connection I made with American Soldiers. Soldiers deal with blood, death, and horrors everyday throughout their deployment. Soldiers have to see their friends get blown up, kids getting killed, and innocent civilians being brutality murdered. Post Dramatic Stress Disorder is a common factor when seeing horrible events like first hand.  

          I also related this to a book I am currently reading for another class called Redeployment by Phil Klay. It contains different fictional stories, with some non-fictional content as well, to express soldiers’ views.

         This also gives me a different outlook on war and American soldiers. The descriptions of things they see and experience are hard for me to relate to. However, while reading about them coming home to families I can picture because I have seen this first hand. Their outlooks with certain situations and sides to some arguments are hard for some people to understand. Citizens who don’t get the same endeavors as them it is hard to see where they are coming from.

         Reading this book helps me get a little more understanding of the soldiers views and why they’ll do because of what they seen in Iraq. In the first story one soldier came home from his deployment to his wife and ill dog. They finally come to the conclusion that they need to put their dog down because he was misery. The soldier refuses to bring him to the vet saying to his wife, “You mean you’ll pay some asshole a hundred bucks to kill my dog. That’s not how you do it. It’s on me.”

Typically, at least for me, I would go to the vet and put my dog down because that's usually what families do. This soldier brought his dog to some field and shot it three times, so it wouldn’t have a chance to feel more pain, and passed away.

       In this veteran’s mind death is something he sees all the time. He thought it was helpful for the dog, but at the same time he saw it as something he can take care of. In other families that might be something they would feel worse about.