Harry Potter, the war and Veterans Day

Today was Veterans Day. Growing up, I didn't think a lot about it. My family didn't celebrate Veterans Day. It was just a day off from school (and later from work). Sure, both my Grandfathers served in the Pacific in World War II, but they never talked about the war. My godfather was drafted for Vietnam; for years he definitely did not talk about that. But my dad, and my friends' dads, they got out of that one, or if they did serve, they never talked about it. In brief, I grew up not knowing anyone in the military - certainly nobody who was career military. And that was fine with me. It would probably still be the case if Eddy hadn't joined-up back in '97 to pay off his student loans. For the record, I'm not a fan of the military. I don't like guns, I almost qualify as a conscientious objector, and I find many of the attitudes held by a majority of soldiers, and the military as an institution, repugnant. But given the events of the past six years, I have come to find the disconnect between the military and the general public troubling.

One of the things that has really bothered me, and this is since the beginning of this adventure, not just since Eddy went back in to the Guard, is that the direct costs of the so-called war on terror have fallen on a disproportionately small segment of the population. In fact, I would wager that more Americans lost a close friend to war in one weekend this past summer than in all the time since military operations started six years ago. The weekend I refer to was that of July 21st, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hit the stores. J.K. Rowling’s final installment in the story of the beloved boy wizard brought the anguish of war home to millions of Americans in a way that our current wars have not.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Since the fall of 2001, approximately 1.5 million American soldiers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although President Bush speaks of the loss of “peace of mind” due to the “terrible images of violence on TV every night,” in truth most Americans, some some 300 million of us, are insulated from the anguish of war. Many soldiers have served at least two if not more tours, and the toll on them and their families is enormous. Worse, friends and families of more than 4000 American soldiers and contractors, hundreds of soldiers and workers from other countries, not to mention tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, have experienced the ultimate pain of losing one or more family members.

To keep things simple, let's stick for a minute with the 3857 (Washington Post, 11/9/07) American soldiers who have died in Iraq. And, let’s assume for a moment that each of those 3857 men or women had large families and large social circles, 300 people each (this is a little over twice the size of the average wedding invitation list). So, 3857 x 300, that is a little under 1.2 million people personally touched by loss in this war. Compare this to the over 8.3 million people who bought copies of The Deathly Hallows within the first 24 hours of its release. Assuming everyone made it as far as chapter six by the end of that weekend, seven times as many people lost old friends, both innocent bystanders and dedicated soldiers, as have experienced a real life "war on terror" loss.

This is not to equate the fight against Voldemort to the war on terror (or vice versa). Nor am I suggesting that Rowling’s ending shows that we must never give up. Sadly, the choices in the battle between good and evil in a fictional children’s book are much clearer than those we face today. It's just something that struck me when I read it; that it is a sad state of affairs when what is said to be “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation” touches fewer people than a work of fiction.

If Eddy's year in Iraq does nothing else, it has certainly made something abstract a little more real, at least for one person.

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America , do hereby call upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954 , as Veterans Day. On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.