War is Hell

A toy lost by one of the very few children living in our condo townhouse complex sat for a couple of days in the crook of the honey locust tree in our backyard. 

Hungry squirrels took it up there hoping it was good to eat.

It was not. 

When not whiling away the hours of my staycation looking out the back window, I've been watching Ken Burns' 2007 production, WAR, on Netflix.

The seven-episode series is about the experience of WWII from the perspective of the people living in four American cities. Mobile, Alabama. Waterbury, Connecticut. Sacramento, California. Laverne, Minnesota. 

To this non-American never longing for narratives about how great my country was or is, the series seems subversive.

Footage of destroyed civilians - by far the greatest war casualties - and killed soldiers on all sides of the conflict dominate the episodes. The narration makes damning assessments of lionized generals MacArthur and Montgomery. The episode called FUBAR focuses on how senior officers' ill-conceived schemes sent thousands of soldiers to their wasted deaths.

Everyone should see films like WAR for all the good reasons of remembering the terrible sacrifice and carnage, being grateful for what we have now, and for thinking that war is a hell of a way to get anything done.

These depictions of what war really is may also encourage those looking for a way to express their opinion to avoid phrases like "the war on Christmas."

Seriously.

Thanks for reading!

Have great week!

Karen