C h I l d h o o d

A Viet Nam Warrior’s Ruminations on the

Paradise of Childhood…Lost in a Perceived

Eternity of war

By: Michael K. Murphy*

          They used to say when you turned seven you’d reached the age of reason.  Now, some people will argue with that proposition.  Some will say that today’s kids reach that watershed event earlier, much earlier than that, maybe as early as six.  Others will argue that in our culture of much delayed and indulgent adolescence that “can” gets kicked down the road to eight or so.  No matter.  Seven is close enough.

          On September 11, 2008 --- only about a year from now --- children born on the same day that terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center will reach that magic adolescent milestone.   All of their brief lives into the threshold of “reason” they will have known only war.

          On September, 11, 2001, those kids who turned seven that day as they sat transfixed in front of their parents’ TV sets (or a parent’s TV sets in this most fractured society we have created for ourselves) when those terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center are now thirteen, old enough to have their reason formed by war and threats of war and their judgment tempered by war, only war;  “war” --- actual, metaphysical, it makes no difference --- war has become their primary emotional and intellectual frame of reference for themselves and to place others in the community of man.

          I remember the documentary films of WWII and the faces of those children of Europe.  They would, undoubtedly, be marked by that war all of their lives.  But Hitler committed suicide. The War ended.  And Europe got on with re-building itself.  But despite the positive end to that war those children had their childhood marked by war permanently and they would not forget it.  Never.

          Our children may be very different from the European children of WWII.  Worse off.  Much worse off.  Our children may be born, reach the age of reason, and grow to maturity and settled judgment --- all with war as a constant presence in their lives.

          Many things will transform people from one thing to another,  poverty, great and sudden wealth, persistent discrimination – racial and otherwise --- to name a few of the more obvious but I think all of those things will pale in comparison to spending one’s whole life in a state of war.

          It may not be the great debate of our times but what is to become of the millions of American children who are now becoming not only children “of” war but “war children” --- and soon “war adults” --- young boys and girls who will in their immaturity and under social pressure choose up sides early and hold those choosings fast ‘til death?  Will we become a modern “Sparta” or modern “Athens” or neither?  Whatever they become, though, not only will today’s “jihadist” children will carry the marks of a warrior into the next generation; our children will be there too.  And if our children come to match them tit for tat then strive as they must, as all children do, to best them from where will come the wisdom to put a stop to it all?

          I have a persistent and depressing image of a young and perfectly normal American warrior a decade from now using computer gaming skills she’s learning today to pilot an unmanned aerial vehicle over some Middle Eastern desert simply looking to kill someone.  And if you are not terrified by that image you are already there and have chosen sides.

Mike

*Mr. Michael Kevin Murphy is an attorney in Virginia, and a B.E.A. correspondent  of long standing. Mike served with the U.S. Army in Viet Nam during the period which straddled the 1968 Tet Offensive. He was commanding officer of an infantry rifle company in the Mecong River delta and  his badges and decorations  include the U. S. Parachutist Badge, the U.S. Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Vietnam Ranger Badge (Biet Dong Quan), the U.S. Bronze Star Medal, thirteen Air Medals, and the Vietnam Gallantry Cross.