This is a very diary like diary.
I apologize if it's a bit disjounted.
The article that inspired it has been mentioned here before.
http://www.time.com/...
It's interesting to think about the amount of visual information about a war and it's length. We've almost been in Iraq as long as we were in WWII. The Vietnam War lasted a long time.
Are these images slowing us down? Are they keeping us from "winning the war?"
Think about it this way.
The vast majority of the stories of war before Vietnam were personal narratives. "I did this today. I did that yesterday." Letters from a soldier to his loved ones or stories (if they had the heart to tell them) told one on one. Now, most of the information we get about this war--as this article points out--has no context whatsoever. There is no narrative, just collages of images and sounds. As surrealism is the representation of dreams, with little to no rational narrative, the images of this war make it dreamlike. It becomes surreal in a strict sense. The war itself, for most people observing it, becomes a dream. It doesn't really exist. It's interesting, too, that this article mentions the terrible nightmares soldiers have upon returning. In all cases, it's very hard to stop a dream.
I would guess, also, that the loved-ones of those killed and injured remember the most painful experiences as having been dreamlike. Maybe they even think, "this is like some terrible movie."
Granted, there are some competing, overarching narratives about this war. Few of them are about the people fighting this war. Sure, there are always the local TV news stories about returning soldiers and the loss of a young husband "over there." But these have been contextualized into some political narrative that has little to do with what is actually happening. You "support the troops" or you don't. You "support the war" or you don't. But these all just become, as I hinted at before, points of competition in some scheme to grasp power, no matter what the narrator actually thinks of the war itself.
Images of flag draped coffins become points of contention. Both "sides" arguing about "politicizing" the war.
But really, this war was/is (as most wars, I suppose, always are) essentially political. It is political conflict writ with violence. Competing political positions using men and women as pawns to gain political favor and power, win or lose.
This war (and all concurrent military engagements) however, seem oddly different from past wars. They seem unstoppable, almost permanent.
Again, it seems, it's very difficult to stop a dream.
phat