Rounding the bend

What's round the corner? A question the Marine may be asking, and me as well. The conclusion of 12 years of schooling, and I'll be in the army next year. The next step will be stepping into the unknown, but what's round the bend you won't find out just standing there. I'm going to have to take the plunge, and find out just what life, army life, has to offer.

Just visited the blog of the guy who ratted out on the Marine unit he followed. Truth, that's his prerogative. He needed to make sure he put out the truth. Let the truth set you free they say. But that's just it, it doesn't. It just put someone behind bars, and made the battle for peace in Iraq one notch more impossible. Margaret Hassan's death occured around the time the news of the Marine shooting came out, Al-Jazeera chooses not to publicise the footage of her killing, but splashes images of the Marine shooting all over the headlines. Truth?

Fact, Marine may not have followed Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Fact, he would be punished nonetheless, with or without the publicity. Fact, Margaret Hassan was executed. Fact, she was defenseless. Fact, she helped the people of Iraq. Fact, the people who killed her are still on the loose, and people put more emphasis on the shooting of a known insurgent who probably killed innocent civilians. In all these facts, where is the truth? Our journalist publicised a fact, which simply hid the truth, and put a false image in peoples' minds, that Marines just enjoy nailing themselves some 'hajis' and totally give no shit about the rules. The media as a source of truth? That's a new one, anyone watched "Wag the Dog"? Truth can be created, and the media can manufacture one, splash pictures it creates and sway you with its words.

Hiram Johnson once said, "The first casualty when war comes is truth". Truth is something to be sought, the carrot on a stick which is always just a finger too far. We chase it, but it just remains out of reach. Does not mean we lose faith and forsake it, but we shouldn't go out of our way to distort it. Facts like the Marine shooting go out and simply skew the truth further, not bring us closer.

What a world I will go into. Where falsehood is perpetuated by facts, and the truth remains so elusive. The lesson which education will never teach, just experience. Before I lose my rose-tinted images of the world, and lose the belief that everyone can make a difference in this world, I can only hope that I do something to prove that perhaps there is still some good left in this world for me to save. Let's hope Mr. Frodo was right.

Don