Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"Joining the military is a life-altering decision, and one that the government urges -- indeed bullies -- young people to make before they're deemed mature enough even to buy a bottle of beer."
-- from "The Recruitment Minefield" by Bill Bigelow

In their side-by-side introductory essays to WAR IS..., editor Patty Campbell speaks of her "passionate revulsion toward war," while editor Marc Aronson talks of how, "People like war. There is only one thing we like better: sex." Together, Campbell and Aronson have compiled an impressive collection of thought-provoking and sometimes incendiary pieces that alternately extol and/or condemn that behavior which Wikipedia defines as "large scale, violent conflict." The collection is divided into sections on "Deciding About War," "Experiencing War," and "The Aftermath of War."

"Mama, just killed a man"
-- Queen, from "Bohemian Rhapsody"

"What does it feel like to kill someone?
"You will probably go through several emotional reactions when you kill. These are generally sequential, but not necessarily universal. The first phase is concern that you'll freeze up and won't be able to pull the trigger. The second is the actual kill, which, because of your training, will happen reflexively. You may feel exhilarated. Killing produces adrenaline; repeated killing can lead to 'killing addiction.' This feeling can be especially intense if you kill at medium to long-range distances. The next phase, remorse and revulsion, can render you unable to ever kill again...Only a few people are able to kill and not feel remorse, though many try to deny this feeling to make it easier to continue to kill. Subsequent killings are often easier to handle. Last is the rationalization and acceptance phase. This is a lifelong process during which you will try to account for what you did. Most are able to see what they did as the right and necessary thing. If you cannot rationalize your killing it may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder."
-- Chris Hedges, "The Moment of Combat"

How might one get caught up participating in war, particularly some war halfway around the world? To read, contemplate, and discuss "The Recruitment Minefield" (quoted above) -- which details how military recruiters seeking to meet quotas routinely lie and badger young people in our nation's high schools, malls, supermarket parking lots, and elsewhere -- is, in itself, sufficient reason to track down a copy of WAR IS...

(It was at this point in reading this book that I stopped long enough to sit down with my seventeen-year-old daughter and find out about all the places where she has encountered recruiters.)

WAR IS... also contains eye-opening, real-life graphic accounts of war:

"As time went by, things got worse. Your friends were gone -- dead or wounded so bad they were sent home -- and here you sat and wondered why not me. Gary stepped on a Bouncing Betty and was ripped apart; he lived but was severely injured. My other close friend, Paul, was gone, transferred to another unit. I was alone, and didn't care anymore. Every day people were dying and being blown apart by booby traps and still I lived. Why? One sergeant was hit in the head with a rocket-propelled grenade; it took his head off. When he fell, he fell on his knees. The blast literally blew his face off. I wanted to say good-bye. But I couldn't talk to him -- I didn't know whether to hug the body or speak to the face. So I turned around and walked away. That is what war is."
-- from "Memories of Vietnam: Vietnam Tunnels" by C.W. Bowman, Jr.

There are just so many individual decisions that one can make in life without significant, lasting consequences, but not so when it comes to war. We learn from WAR IS... that signing on with the military is unlike any other job one might consider. The "workplace" can suddenly change so radically but you are never permitted to change your mind, quit, and go find a different job.

In Helen Benedict's piece, "Women at War: What it is Like to be a Female Soldier at War in Iraq," we read accounts of women who joined the military prior to 9/11 with little thought as to the potential consequences. These women eventually found themselves in Iraq facing both lethal enemy fire as well as repeated incidents of sexual harassment and sexual attacks by their coworkers.

"You play with my world
Like it's your little toy"
-- from "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan

WAR IS...: SOLDIERS, SURVIVORS, AND STORYTELLERS TALK ABOUT WAR contains everything from vintage columns by legendary WWII reporter Ernie Pyle to a one-act play ("Killing Flies") by YA author (and daughter of a career army officer) Rita Williams-Garcia to the fascinating and harsh "Letter to a Young Enlistee" by U.S. Army vet Christian Bauman. It is a book that I wish were about some bizarre fictional world somewhere else in the universe. But as long as there are recruiters lurking in front of Safeway and as long as No Child Left Behind mandates that recruiters have access to our children while they are at school, this is a book that must absolutely be brought to the attention of today's teens.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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