War- How I came to think..what I think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuym66LIr4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr59K1j-P44

Ok, so one thing is pretty obvious in my house hold. My dad and I have very different ideas on how the world works. We clash on people's intentions and politics, mainly because I tend to try and be a little more endearing. But there has always been one topic that we've been on the same page, war.

Even though I live in Coronado I personally am not a military family. I've only moved once, and haven't been allowed on base for the majority of my life. So how has war effected me? Well my opinion recently (within the last year) has changed. A lot. I used to believe that things were very black and white. There was high and low. Up and down. Right and wrong. Good and bad. But I've learned that isn't always the case. For a long time I would watch kids or simple war movies and there was always a very distinct bad guy. Someone trying to oppress freedom or causing destruction.

However at the same time, I was a kid being taught that you should "walk a mile in some one's shoes". That doesn't happen too much in the kid movies. There isn't really a reason that the monster wants to destroy the town. He's just evil! These motives aren't explored.

So what does this have to do with my dad and I? Well in one of our many heated discussions I heard something I don't think I'd ever heard before, "I completely agree with you." It was late and the two of us had finished watching Letters from Iwo Jima. This was the story of the Japanese soldiers who defended their homeland from Americans for 36 days. It is the counterpart to Flags of our Fathers, which is the story of the same battle from the American's point of view. We both had seen this movie in the past.

My dad agreed with me in the sense that he never blamed the solders. Although he was glad that America had won the battle, he still held the utmost respect for the Japanese that fought. We both agreed that war was "waged by the old, and paid for by the young" meaning that politicians were the ones truly fighting while the young soldiers made the sacrifice.
The ones in power are the ones who decide to try and stop communism, expand their territory, or extend help to an ailing ally. Not the men in uniform. They fight for their country, whatever it's will at the time may be. And to me, that more is honorable.

Many war movies try and achieve the same goal as the ones aimed towards children. Good versus evil. What my dad liked so much about Iwo Jima is that it humanized our "enemy". Instead of making them out to be some mysterious evil who decided one day to try and destroy all things good, we walked in their shoes. A lot of their youths were forced into a war that they didn't necessary want to fight in just as many in America were through the draft. They were trying to do the honorable thing by serving their country. Just as American soldiers are seen as heroes for protecting my family, I try and view foreign soldiers as during the same for their own people. No matter what the country’s political agenda, the men in battle are fight for honor. We can only hope that the ones in power see it in themselves to do the right thing.