I am very familiar with the song "American Soldier," but I had somehow never seen this video:
Oh dear God, the song alone can make me tear up if I'm in a certain mood, but that video is just too much. I lost my father suddenly at age 11 (though not to war) so I know what that child of a similar age is going through. Watching the video hurt so bad that I nearly sobbed as I was once again reminded of what war means on an individual level. No wonder so many good-hearted people are so blinded to reality and honestly believe war is never justified!--That's not a new thought or topic for me, but it hit me with a gut-level empathy that it never has before.
Now to make this crassly political... Once I got my emotions under control I couldn't help but give an ironic laugh at something I'd read today: the idea that conservatives are irrational and reflexive, but liberals are oh-so-rational in their approach to the world. It seems many reflexively "anti-war" liberals are so overwhelmed by their emotions when confronted with war's effects (the kind of emotion I feel when I watch that video) that they can't think straight and will do anything and everything to make that feeling stop. The rest of us acknowledge that feeling, cry and wail in private, comfort and care for the orphans and widows as we continually carry them in our hearts... and press on with what we think must be done, recognizing that emotional discomfort is not the determinative indicator of morality or correctness.
