war

War is tough and soldiers need any support possible to get through this life-changing, often life-ending experience. To give soldiers a feeling of home, the states open up fast food restaurants in war zones and famous people visit to boost soldiers’ morale and give them a chance to escape reality for a while.

Even Marilyn Monroe travelled to Korea to support the troops, the pictures are famous worldwide. Sending a standup-comic to Iraq seems to fit the tradition, but completely expended the original purpose.

The war in Iraq killed thousands of people, brought depression and fear to the population and destroyed social, cultural and economic stability. The many widows are not likely to remarry.

Even in Western Countries women who are soldiers are rather rare. The lives lost in the battle belong to men and the country of Iraq consequently counts almost one million widows. Most of them lost their husband during the last nine years of fighting. The huge gender imbalance changed society severely, leaving many Iraqi families without the breadwinner.

The pen is mightier than the sword, but when writing about the war, who is the better record keeper? The veteran who replaced the gun with a pen or the professional writer with an objective and distant perception?

Watching Kathryn Bigelows ‘The Hurt Locker’ which is based on a screenplay by Mark Boal (who won an Oscar for the script), makes you wonder how to truly capture war as a writer. Boals curriculum vitae reveals he is a non-veteran, but went to Iraq for research, giving him the experience needed to turn his writing into an intensive and realistic portrayal of the incidents on location. But does the military agree as well? Is it more important to be a writer or a veteran? Who does the better job? And what is a good job in war reporting anyway?

PTSD is nothing new but has only recently come to public attention. The brain’s ways to deal with the horrific experiences of war continue long after the individual has returned to a ‘normal’ life.

It is not about weakness, nor is it an invention of the 21st century. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – not exclusively tied to war – has been with humanity for centuries.

It can be a good thing when kid’s play imitates society. But in the case of war toys like tanks, knives and guns, it is a rather disturbing outlook on propagating violence even in early age.

There have been many problems with the selling of toy guns in Iraq recently. First and foremost it seems to be a dangerous gateway to see violence not only as a daily occurrence but as an actually joyful past time.

A derogatory term for soldiers that never really leave their Forward Operating base is the title of David Abrams biting novel about a weirdly dissonant haven amidst the Iraqi war.

A ‘Fobbit’ is a soldier that is spending all his time overseas at the Forward Operation Base (FOB) and therefore never really leaves the safe compounds to fight.

The FOB is the suburban version of every military base, a place where chain restaurants, desk jobs and idling around thrive.

Fobbit: David Abrams invents his experiences new

David Abrams was a Fobbit himself, he admits, not really knowing that he was called like that but fully aware that he was in the comfort zone of the Iraq war.

He worked for the press and public department and adapted news about causalities, suicide bombs and death into media-friendly bite-sized pieces.

In his novel, it therefore is no surprise when his protagonist Staff Sgt. Chance Gooding Jr. is equally involved in public affairs.

Sarah Glidden has an astute and sensible grasp on the fragile politics of the Middle East. Her graphic novel ‘How to understand Israel in 60 days or less’ showed interest, empathy and humility to the more than ambivalent conflicts. Her short story ‘The Waiting Room“ deals with another sad matter.

The Iraqis in Syria that have fled the country during the war in 2003 are in limbo. Their whole lives are on hold and they spend each day, each week and each month waiting to return to their homeland or to start a new life elsewhere.

Silent Bombs are the repercussions of high radiation bombs that leave their marks even generations later and take a high toll on society. Depleted Uranium (DU) seems to be a dangerously subtle species of this shameful weaponry.

The term was used by a documentary about the effects of nuclear bombs in Kazakhstan („Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland“) but since then has taken the meaning of the irreversible damages of dangerous weaponry with a lasting effect on the health of human beings.

Amongst the few but massive monuments built by or in memory of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Al-Shaheed Monument is dedicated to all the soldiers that lost their lives during the war.

It is an impressive sight, the two turquoise halves that make a dome. With 190 meters in diameter and 40 meter height, the domes are designed to resemble Abbasid era structures.

The godfather of British humor has created a movie length spin off of his political satire „The Thick of it“ and addresses the horrendous involvement of hapless British politicians in the Iraq war.

Accidentally, Simon Foster declares on National radio that a war in the Middle East is „unforeseeable“ which might not have caused any problems if he wouldn’t be the British Minister for International Development. When he fails to even out his mistake and even worsens the situation it calls a few U.S. State Departmet officials into action who see a perfect groundwork to include Britain in their promotion for a war with Iraq. Foster and the British enforcer Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) travel to America to smooth things out. Oh dear.