When you go to a place like Iraq, I any way, must take my idea and must wrestle with the abstract, the intangible, the nuanced - a soul search. I get plenty of befuddled looks and incredulous questions from associates and family. It is myself however, I must really convince.
In late 1999, I was taking Twentieth-Century Literature at Madison Area Technical College. I would be graduating in the following spring with a college transferable associate's degree. It was a night class and it was at the quiet and friendly Downtown Campus. Mr. Cantrell the Instructor had asked us to critique a poem. I chose "The Man He Killed," by Thomas Hardy. It was written in 1902. Basically, it is a short poem about a soldier who reflects on killing an enemy soldier. On any other given day they might have had a beer together. You are all big kids, if you are that interested you can Google the poem up.
In doing my research on Hardy, I discovered he had never been in the military. Something however, in that era must have inspired him to venture into writing about something he himself had never done. On mentioning this to Mr. Cantrell, to my surprise he suggested poets talk about things they have not experienced themselves, all the time.
"It is perfectly acceptable, and even applaudable what Hardy had presented," Mr Cantrell said.
I bring this up because people often ask me why I insisted on going to Iraq, and now back again. In short, I am taking Hardy's cue and lead, to the next level. Although I am no longer in the military myself, I am tired of talking-head, paper-tiger, military service avoiding, news jockeys telling me about Iraq. They could not carry "Hardy the poet's" jock strap. It is similar to what I felt during Viet Nam. Then I could not get to "'Nam." I had to go to Viet Nam many years after the war was long past. But now I have the cleverness of life's experience to have gotten to Iraq once during this war, and now soon back again.
While in Iraq, I had to drink tea and smoke cigarettes on two occasions with men that on any other day might be inclined to kill me. Just the opposite of the soldier in Hardy's poem. The tea and cigs where the consummation of understandings arrived at so as I might travel on to other locations without further detention.
On any given day, all 27 million Iraqis are not killing each other. It stands to reason they are doing something in the meantime. It is my job as a cultural journalist to visit and observe what ever that "something," other than killing is.
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Lance Corporal Shane K. O'Donnell, 24, of De Forest. Lance Cpl. O'Donnell died during combat operations in Babil province, south of Baghdad and Fallujah on November 8, 2004. He was a member of the Marine Reserves battalion in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. The battalion is headquartered in Illinois. Some 900 Marines were activated June 1, 2004; they arrived in Iraq in September. There is about 175 Marines in Madison based Golf Company and 160 in Milwaukee based Fox Company. They are rifle companies. Lance Cpl. Daniel Wyatt, 22, of Caledonia, of Fox Company, was killed a month earlier. O'Donnell is the 24th Wisconsin soldier to die in the Iraq war. De Forest is a town of about 8,000, north of Madison. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Shane played football at De Forest High School. He had also attended Madison Area Technical College. Shane was single and had worked construction. The Journal Sentinel went on to say O'Donnell joined the Madison Marine unit in October of 2002. Lance Cpl. O'Donnell is survived by his mom Peg, and Eric a younger brother.
3,781 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
27,848 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.
79 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
112 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
