Kevin Powers Describes War....

Yesterday I started reading a book entitled "The Yellow Birds". It was written by Kevin Powers, a young Army vet who served in Iraq in 2004-2005.  He was stationed for a time where the fictional story  occurred. 

The author reeled me in beginning with the first page. He uses adjectives and personification to describe the war.  The pictures he paints are vivid, daunting and very hard to forget.War has a name. It is found somewhere between Boredom and Hell.

 When he describes the lay of the land, the way the Tigris River smells, the looks in the eyes of young soldiers barely old enough to shave, fighting and dying, I can see it all.  He does an excellent job describing a life I have never experienced up close and personal.

 I could not put the book down for any length of time.  Now that I am through with the book, part of me wishes I had never read it. Murphy and John are etched in my psyche, right  along with Mr. Brooks, Scarlett O'Hara, and Boo Radley. 

There were no heroes in "The Yellow Birds".  There were lives destroyed by what soldiers saw, what they did, and what happened to them.  None of the characters remained unscathed from war. The ones who made it, left a good portion of themselves, of the young men they used to be in Iraq. Entering the 'world' again was something they forgot how to do. They did not belong in a trivial society and had no desire to return to war.  They were too damaged to do either.  The main thing they desired was to be left alone, they never wanted to see a desert again.  Horizons were no longer beautiful. They needed to avoid contact with people if at all possible. It was better to be alone than to be surrounded by people who  knew nothing of life and death in a war zone.  The young soldiers were glad the  'world' didn't have their memories. They needed space to let their ghosts walk and talk freely. It would be the only way some of them could heal.

Today on the news I watched as Israel and Hamas moved closer and closer to war. I watched missiles hit Jerusalem for the first time in years. The Middle East is on the verge of all out war. It could explode at any minute. There is no rest in that part of the world. There never has been. There never will be.

The world is in a sad state of affairs. I pray for a peace that will not come easily if at all. I thank Kevin Powers for writing a book that can stir me to my core. I pray "The Yellow Birds" always remains a piece of fiction, although in my heart I believe there is a thread of truth running through the book from beginning to end. I believe every war has its share of 'Murphy's and of John's.