I went to get a haircut today, and while I was waiting I picked up the October issue of Details. It had a really interesting story written by Anthony Swofford, whose autobiographical Jarhead is about to be released as a major movie. I've spent the last couple of hours trying to find an online version of the article so I could post pieces in this diary, but to no avail.
It feels like a thousand years since I've been to the Santa Monica pier, and as much as I read Daily Kos, I knew about the memorial at Camp Casey in Crawford but didn't know about the memorials in Santa Monica or Santa Barbara....
...In the article, Swofford visited & talks about the
Arlington West memorial in Santa Monica, where a Cross, Star of David, or Crescent is placed in the beach for every soldier killed in Iraq. He then went to hangouts around
Camp Pendleton to interview Marines that had been in Iraq, about their experiences & how they're readjusting to
"normal" life. One Marine tells Swofford about how he & his fellow soldiers have been
"Fucked Up" by the experience.
Swofford then details how drug rehabs & homeless shelters have reported upticks of military personnel from the Iraq War checking in. He then ends the article with a blistering critique of Bush. He says 3 years from now when Bush leaves the White House, he'll go off to earn millions on the speaking circuit. The families of the people killed in Iraq will bear scars that will never heal.
Tomorrow, when that right-wing asshole you work with, or that wingnut relative start bitching about what Senator Reid did today, tell them that he did it for those Crosses in the sand...