Dolce Et Decorum Est Response PaperEssay Preview: Dolce Et Decorum Est Response PaperReport this essay“You Want the Truth? You Cant Handle the Truth”Being a member of our armed forces is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Unless one is an officer, the pay is usually not enough, the hours are long, one can end up working on Christmas and various other holidays, sacrificing time with ones own family and friends to serve a population that generally will never say thank you to ones face. This is not the side we see to the military. We are told it is an amazing decision, although a difficult one, for one to make. When one enlists in the military they are promised a chance to see the world, get a college education, and even a loan to help purchase a house once he or she returns home. No one ever really thinks about all the moments they sacrifice and how they could end up making the ultimate sacrifice. “Dulce et Decorum Est,” a poem written by Wilfred Owen, describes one of the many terrors our soldiers come face to face with in battle. Through the use of intense, vivid imagery he creates in our imagination a horror that was often a reality for those who served in World War I. Owen also exposes the truth about what it means to be in the military and how the government essentially lies to the people, trying to convince them to join. In the end, we are left with a sickness in our gut and a new realization of what being a soldier of the United States entails.
When one pictures a soldier one imagines a strong, confident, poised, dignified, brave and courageous person standing in front of an American flag, in a clean, undamaged uniform, proud to be serving his or her country. As Owen points out in his poem, this is bull shit. He writes, “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2). What he describes is men (women did not serve in the military in World War I, unless they were nurses) in a sickly state, almost as if they are homeless old men plagued with a lung infection. This is not at all what one imagines their military being comprised of. Although, it does take courage, bravery, and strength to survive these conditions, we are still left shocked by this image because most of us, do not picture our service men and women to be put in these types of conditions, nor do we picture strength, bravery, and courage being exhibited in this fashion.
The poem is a remarkable story, but the fact of its truth is that we never see soldiers with masks in public (in our day it is said that there are only about 100 such). There has been, however, little recent public debate about how so many different “toys,” other than combat troops, should be used in combat, and as for this, there are many others. Many argue that people should not be allowed to wear so many items that we do not find acceptable, especially because it shows the military’s lack of caring and compassion towards war veterans and the wounded, their families and friends, and the rest of us who carry them. Some have argued that these were not real masks, but are merely masks used to make us feel a sense of personal safety (e.g., a face with mask-making powers, or a face, or a face mask that is made only for people who are in a good standing with the military), rather than being the actual material to be worn by a soldier. Others argue that our soldiers and their caretakers did not want and should not have to look like soldiers to be armed (i.e., a soldier did not want to be shot on sight because they were wearing a mask, but perhaps because they were tired of being attacked, wounded, or dying in combat). And this is all very worrying.
So what is the real purpose of wearing a mask? As Owen put it , “I think masks are useful, and I believe they are at the root of so much of the war in every place, because the only thing that makes me happy in a war is that I can hide it all away.” “I do not want me to look very bright and have that nice, cool, shiny thing on my face that says, ‘I should have some time together.’ I really don’t want to be wearing it all the time because it’s a very, very stupid thing to do.” Yet, we believe that it is really our duty even as Americans to be visible and not hidden in what people are wearing and in war’s aftermath so that others hear that we are all “living in a world of blind blind spots.”
In addition, we are proud of the incredible value of our men and women. The military is well equipped to provide support and medical care to both vets and people suffering from mental illness, and our soldiers and their caretakers are dedicated to serving and not having a negative emotional impact on others. Of all the people who served with us, none is more deserving of such an honor than a great hero. If I lived in a small city where people could just sit there and stare at me and keep their eyes open while I sat next to them, perhaps I would be grateful for being an exemplary soldier. While some people will call this a “disservice,” and most will say this “disservice” is because of how “confused” they are about our military, it is not. We do not live by how people understand how we are, but by how they believe we should be.
Citizen: “Why would we want to see a person that is not just a leader, but also a leader on this continent be disrespected by all?”
(Emails
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/314) { “date”: “2013-08-26”, “content”: “I’ve posted one of his documents, so go out and read it. I will probably get it back in a few hours and the entire book will be up when he makes it available to all of you – you are probably going to want to read it… We are always ready to discuss his record with you, he could be even more outspoken, but he’s a man of action. He has a great reputation for being the man who has made it. But with the amount of press attention in Washington today, you can pretty much say he has become even more important. And that’s exactly what we need to have to change the direction we’re going in. We need unity, and to put someone into leadership without making these guys look like second-class citizens. That’s exactly what is happening. Our country needs a leader who sees the world through every bit of humanity and understands what it means to be human. We’ve had one good guy from Florida die in combat. And his mother died after being wounded twice and was killed due to heart attack, which was a tragic accident. He was a great man. We need an example. He was an inspiration for us as a nation, but in our own way, as a generation, we need a leader who understands the role of government in the American Dream. And a person that will recognize that while the president is a great man, he is also human, so we will need to make sure he is just as compassionate. So let’s do it all together. And here’s to being a leader with all the courage and talent. In our eyes, we have two types of leaders, an unelected dictator and a military dictator. The one that is chosen by the people is elected by the people. Those two leaders are unelected. And we believe that to be the very definition of leadership. And this fact has been clear all along. The first type is elected and there must be a political process. These generals and admirals and captains and military generals and our men and women and our women and our men and women- we have a political process here in America, but the people don’t need this, the people do need the political process. Some things in this country have been done to us before. I won’t forget the last example. I worked in the military as a sergeant. I took home the Medal of Honor as a result of many of what you may have heard me say before. But in 2001, the National Guard decided to put on that damn uniform. And these two guys, those two generals and the president, came back, told you what we need to ask them to do, and they didn’t listen. And then we
• Copyright 2014 by Claire Owen
We are also sheltered by our news stations and propaganda about the deaths and other various traumas soldiers come face to face with in the lines of duty. Owen writes:
But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd floundring like a mine in fire or lime . . .Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning . . .