Lions for Lambs

"...This is how we fight now."--Tom Cruise's character, US Senator
"...Says the man who is sitting in an air conditioned office." --Meryl Streep's character, reporter

I have just started watching, but very interesting so far.

But on that exchange of words, I know that we are all tired of politicians waging war and our soldiers paying for their decisions. [Reminder of Carissa Picard's statement on CBS, “Our soldiers didn't choose to wage this war; they didn't choose to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," she said. "We've sent them there. We need to take responsibility for what happens to them."]

After he is asked, why not work on strategy to get our troops home, instead of engaging them in more war. [Streep emphasizes on how EXPENSIVE that kind of strategy is.] Cruise's character answers, "[Years later]... we'll be dealing with a shattered Iraq, a hopeless Afghanistan and a nuclear Iran... how much do you think that would cost?"

I truly don't know... what I would do if I were a politician, what policies would I pass, what strategies would I back? I know that a sudden withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan leaves a lot of things unfinished, and is that what we want?

I feel that what has been reported, what is in store for our armed forces, it is a step in the right direction. Shorter deployments, longer dwell time, reevaluation of resources and troops, it is a baby step, and I am waiting to see what happens, but I am a little bit tired of waiting in fear.

Not fear for my husband, but a fear that... "Maybe something bigger could happen if we left." Another attack, another 9/11, a Taliban "victory" because they have gotten rid of the Americans. There is a lot of fear involved with America's mass media. It is the way we work, and we LIKE it. America loves to be thrilled, they need to be "caught" they need DRAMA!!

And it is what we all understand.

Policy. I have a lot more to learn. I want to be able to "figure things out" and strategize and see all angles and come up with some profound plan to save this country and save our soldiers, but at the moment, I feel naive, inexperienced, or just plain young.

More later when I finish the movie.

-------------------Just finished the movie--------------------------

[DQ: I was writing as I was watching. Haha! I totally plan to watch it again without any distractions]

I Googled: "What does lions for lambs mean?!"

"Lions for Lambs comes from a comment made by a German officer in World War I about the bravery of British soldiers compared to the criminal stupidity of their commanders (the soldiers are the lions, their commanders the lambs)."

My favorite part of the entire movie. "Engagement"
(It isn't in the clip, but) The best part is when their classmates are hounding them, "You talk the talk" and they asked them if the boys will go to Stanford or Harvard, basically, they are here in the classroom, and they are preaching this "go out and do something" and they are just going to go on to graduate school. And on the overhead, they two put down transparencies of their orders to report. It was... poetic.

I asked my students once, "What if we made you join the military after high school? You'd spend 2 years in the service, when you get out, you'll be 21, and at a different state of mind to take on the world, go to college, etc." Is it surprising that they disagreed wholeheartedly?! But the logic is there. You hear this argument in the clip above, and it's a call to DO something about the society, the government you live in.

To me this movie was so great because it shows a problem, it shows the parties involved, and it asks the audience, "What can you do about it?"

What ARE you going to do about it?

This movie epitomizes the fact that this war... my gosh, this war is not about our soldiers. You look at who is calling all the shots, you look at who is in country, holding guns, wearing the same pair of ACUs for month. Presidents and congressmen are sitting in air conditioned offices, they are having dinner with their families every night, they are not fighting this war. And aside from the politicians who are calling the shots, there are citizens... idle citizens, who are entitled to the freedoms they have, who see nothing more to fight for because they have it all.

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One of my favorite movie moments is in Independence Day when the president, gets into a fighter jet and goes with his men into war. (HAHA!! Dreaming over here, I know.) Or in Troy when King Prium goes into the Spartan camp to ask for Hector's body.

I live in a world of possibilities. The slight possibility, or even a better word, the hope that national leaders do more than stand up for their men, but they stand with their men. I hope for a renewal in spirit for this nation.

My mother-in-law and I were talking this morning about the state of the nation. I told her about the movie (Lions for Lambs) and it got us talking about what we stand for, why we stand for it, and who is really fighting for it.

There was this moment that conspiracy theories came into the conversations, she talked about Kennedy and Johnson, Vietnam, and I said, "My students keep telling em that 9/11 was a big hoax." And she nodded in agreement, she'd heard it too.

I told her, "That...I refuse to believe that is even true. Not because I choose not to acknowledge it, but... DJ is in Afghanistan right now. So what is he fighting for?" September 11, 2001, DJ was a sophomore in high school, I went to school that day and in all honesty, I didn't understand the magnitude of that morning. I had no idea. I was a sophomore!!

But with another year, and another, and a little more time to develop my thoughts, my opinions... we are protecting something. Are we not? In the clip above, a student asks, "When has having a house with high walls been the American Dream?"

The dates named off are July 5, 1776, December 8, 1941, September 12, 2001.

On September 11, 2001, President Bush addressed the nation and he said, "A great people has been called to defend a great nation." That hits home for me. It isn't like DJ joined sophomore year, when the speech was given, but he joined and when asked why he'll answer, "Because God has called me to do it, he's the general and he told me to stand here, so... what choice do I have?"

A great people have been called to defend a great nation.
A great people, plural, all of us... not just males over 18. (I find it so funny that when I fill out a scholarship application it asks me if I am a male, I will answer no, and the question I skip over is "Have you entered into selective services?" Why am I exempt from such a committment?)

We are claimed to be a great people. So be great.
We have claimed to have a great nation. So uphold it.

I understand that politics, campaigns, public images, they're all part of a dirty game. But I refuse to degrade our nation and throw away those first few years of our nation, of such patriotism, pride, strength. I refuse to say, "I give up" and become one of the masses always calling for change and never doing anything to get change. I refuse to let those men who sent my husband to fight a war, that they waged, win. Because the idea of America is greater than the feeling of disappointment, it is greater than a presidential term, it is much greater than this moment.

I have had my days where I've told myself and my husband, "I really HATE this deployment." I make conscious decision to refrain from saying "I really HATE the Army." Haha, because I don't. (If it weren't for the 'security' of life in the Army, we would not have gotten married, we would have been two college students still living at our parents' houses.) I don't hate this country. I don't hate the president.

I have not, and will not give up on this country.
(I met a dog groomer, and I was playfully telling him how much I love this country, he replied, "Really? I was thinking about washing my hands of this country and moving to Canada.") Who says stuff like that!?!?!?!?!?!?
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Lions for Lambs, a great eye opener. Well, not so much an eye opener, because it's not like, people were oblivious to how things work in this government and in this war, but... in this 6 minutes of the movie, ENGAGEMENT, (the clip above), it is the most pivotal, I think, in the entire movie...

It's a call for a great people, to defend a great nation. (The ideals of a great nation, to change what needs to be changed, to step up and DO something rather than complain or protest on the sidelines.)