tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post4186458733566212016..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: Tim O'Brien, "The Things they Carried"Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-36945271179036996782022-03-20T04:01:26.557-04:002022-03-20T04:01:26.557-04:00The soldiers, at least, all carried the same thing...The soldiers, at least, all carried the same thing - rifles.<br /><br />It's something I struggle to understand - the willingness to voluntarily carry a gun, or even the willingness to allow others to force you to carry one.<br /><br />Five years in jail for refusing the draft always seemed a bargain in comparison to a hideous death in the mud; or a lifetime of paralysis from a bullet in the spine; or watching a village of people have their flesh cooked off their bones by napalm; or spending the rest of your life trying to forget the taste of another mans brains and powdered cerebellum; or even just the gaze of an "enemy" soldier as he stares unseeing through you with glassy eyes until they go dark.<br /><br />No one comes home from war without scars - assuming you even come home. If I ever have to choose, well... I'd exchange a walk-on part in The War for the lead role in a cage.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com