Tainted Hands

This is the open letter to America that we wrote as one of of our class assignments. We had just watched Jarhead, and I was inspired by the opening voice-over, so I decided to use it in my letter.

Dear American citizens,

The protagonist of Jarhead opens and ends the film with the narration, “A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war. And afterward he turns the rifle in at the armory, and he believes he’s finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands, love a woman, build a house, change his son’s diaper; his hands remember the rifle” (Jarhead 2005).

Though a fictional character, Swofford is an adequate representation of our men at war. They fight there, with rifles in hand, so that we can be safe here. 
Yet do we realize the great sacrifice that they make for us? 
The rifle leaves them tainted, scathed, and wartorn as most of us failed to realize that the fifth anniversary of the invasion in Iraq passed yesterday. Never before has our country been at war, and its citizens so ignorant of the fact. Most of our generation cannot remember a time without Iraq; yet most of us can also not name the significant events that have occurred in this war. We face the very real danger that our children will know more about this war from their history lessons, than we do currently living through it.

We read articles and watch the news, but we’ve become desensitized to the death toll counts and explosions reported daily. We’ve accepted war as a fact of our daily lives and this must change. 
We can no longer continue to live our ignorant lives as rifles continue to taint more and more of our soldiers. We must speak up, speak out, and speak with the other members of our generation. Start a dialogue anywhere, with anyone, and talk about the war. Make it the issue that it is. The war is in our hands, and we cannot let it continue to taint them.