So I have Arab World with Dr. Gubera on campus. It's really an interesting and fun class. He's got quite the unique sense of humor, and a looooot of knowledge. We talk about a wide range of things relating to that part of the planet, but yesterday something really interesting happened.
Someone brought up the recently released picture of a couple American soldiers, with a couple Afghani soldiers, in which they're holding a couple body parts from an apparent suicide bomber or something. They've been rather controversial online, as the soldiers have slight smiles, so many people are claiming it's a display of "war trophies".
What made this interesting was a man in class named Brandon. I really think he's the best thing to happen to our class. Dr. Gubera calls him Captain America, but he was actually a Sergeant in the Army not long ago. When this picture was mentioned, he instantly chimed in to explain it, and I'm really glad he did.
Apparently, our government, while not really explaining WHY they want it, has expressed to our troops that they want literally everything documented, via pictures, reports, etc.. A lot of these pictures will be of troops simply displaying limbs from an attempted suicide bombing, really just to show the approximate size of such, probably just so the "boys upstairs" can keep records of things like that. The reason people are misrepresenting it as a trophy picture is the smiles.
The thing that, unfortunately, too many people fail to realize is how smiles work. These men are in a foreign place, without their loved ones, risking their lives, all day, every day, constantly worried that the next man walking up to shake their hand might be strapped with explosives. Are they expected to just sit and dwell on the horrors they see daily? They're taught to use humor to make it through the day. Who's to say there wasn't a man off camera that cracked a quick, unrelated joke, and these soldiers heard it, and just as a reflex ended up smirking?
Brandon informed us that they'll often times laugh while cleaning up a bombing attempt. "What an idiot. This guy just wasted his own ass to try and take us out, and didn't even do anything. Talk about dumb! Haha!" It's almost a sigh of relief. He told us even the Arab soldiers they fight alongside laugh at the extreme fundamentalists that carry out such actions.
I can tell you, after last year's tornado, even I had to deal with things like this for awhile. I was switching between bawling like a baby, and laughing hysterically every five minutes. I'd see that so many things were gone and destroyed, I'd worry about those that got hurt, and I'd cry. Then I'd see a random, bright yellow MSSU shirt of mine, stuck at the top of a tree. And instantly, I'd say "Well, how in the hell am I gonna get that down? Man, I really liked that shirt, but at least the tree looks good in yellow!"
We're taught to use humor to get through the tough times in life. That's how we as humans survive. So many people take things out of context, it's just not fair to the men and women fighting and dying overseas. You see a picture, that isn't even supposed to be on public record by the way, and instantly assume it's displaying a trophy? Why must things constantly be twisted?
No comments:
Post a Comment