War is the is the chaos that arises from the internal battle of American ideals.

War is the is the chaos that arises from the internal battle of American ideals.

The battle field is only one of the many places where the conflicts of war personify themselves. The above collage consists of pro and anti war movement photos taken during and after the Vietnam war. The overlay of the American flag is present to represent that all of this is a homegrown struggle, and that is in some ways what our nation is all about. Our constitution gives everyone the right to their own views and opinions, and inevitably this leads to internal conflict. This is a prime example of the fact that some of the biggest battles of war take place far from the battlefield. Vietnam is one of America’s most controversial wars, and most agree that we had no business intervening there. As reiterated in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, many soldiers who took part in the war were not supporters of it. O’Brien himself and many others went on to be activists against the war. O’Brien described how he felt having to partake in the war as, “All around me the options seemed to be narrowing, as if I were hurtling down a huge black funnel, the world squeezing in tight.”(O’Brien, 41) Many soldiers shared similar conflicts to O’Brien in that they were unsure if they wanted to fight in the war but felt they had no other options. After the war ended, with the U.S. in defeat, these soldiers were left even more mentally conflicted than before. This eventually resulted in a part of U.S. history that is overlooked, the shaming of Vietnam soldiers after they returned for war. There has to be an extreme disconnect between not only the military and the people, but the people and the U.S. government, for people to feel it just to shame the people who are putting their lives at risk to protect their freedom. This further proves that while government officials have what they think is best at heart, that same image doesn’t match up with the one of the people. While at a congressional level, our officials put us in war as they begin to fear losing our country's safety and losing power, our citizen’s fear jeopardizing our troops safety for unnecessary reasons. This creates a constant side battle of our instinctive craving for dominance and security which puts us in wars and makes us drastic measures to win them combated with our human compassion encouraging us to stay out of them. While our troops fight relentlessly to maintain the safety of our nation, there will always be a constant internal struggle of the morality of war.

Bibliography:

"Anti-war Means Anti-america." Anti-war Means Anti-america. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. <http://www.troutbrook.com/prowargallery5.html>.

"The Soundtrack of Rebellion: Music and the Vietnam War." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. <http://vandyradio.com/the-soundtrack-of-rebellion-music-and-the-vietnam-war/>.

"Old American Flag - Free Large Images." Free Large Images. N.p., 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. <http://www.freelargeimages.com/old-american-flag-534/>.