• Home
  • Videos
  • Our Team
  • Terms of Service
  • Digital Millenium Copyright Act
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
Porter Medium

"The Advancement and Diffusion of Knowledge is the only Guardian of True Liberty" -James Madison

  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Weather
  • Int’l
  • Technology
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Weather
  • Int’l
  • Technology
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Porter Medium
No Result
View All Result

A Holiday Reflection on the War in Afghanistan

A personal look through 18 years of holidays and unending war

Rory Margraf by Rory Margraf
December 23, 2019
in Opinion
0
A Holiday Reflection on the War in Afghanistan

Photo Credit: Holly Mindrup via Unsplash

At nine years old, my family moved back to Southern California, settling in San Clemente, which borders the Northwest side of Camp Pendleton. One of the largest Marine installations in the United States, Camp Pendleton covers several roles, from basic training to School of Infantry, amphibious training to artillery, and more. At any one time, the base has as many as one hundred thousand persons within its population.

Growing up in San Clemente, one quickly becomes accustomed to the natural relationship that the city has with the base. Aside from the security checkpoints, there is a near-seamless flow between personnel, their families, and San Clemente. Some of the strongest and most important relationships that my family has gained over the last twenty years has been with those stationed on Camp Pendleton. Whether through school, scouting, church, or various other interactions, these are friendships that will always last, no matter the time and space between us.

One San Clemente tradition that stands out from the rest is Thanksgiving. Each year, hundreds of families open their homes to young Marines, fresh out of basic training. Since 2001, my dad has driven down to the base on Thanksgiving morning to load his truck up with uniformed Marines and bring them home for dinner.

Once they have had a chance to change out of their uniforms and get comfortable, introductions are made, the husky has had a chance to sniff everyone, and then we have brunch. My mom smiles at the inevitable exclamation, “These are real eggs!” My dad identifies the one Dallas Cowboys fan, reminds them that we are a Philadelphia household, and then football is turned on. There is the traditional, midday nap in uncomfortable positions on chairs and couches, followed by dinner. Pie follows and then the Marines make the trip back to Camp Pendleton.

Generational Wars

The first time my family hosted young Marines for Thanksgiving, we had two come over. Since then, we have hosted as many as eight Marines. Only a few weeks ago, we hosted six, with the one Cowboys fan distraught over their loss but otherwise in good spirits.

As we sat around the table, learning about each other, their stories and specialties, next assignments and hometowns, a thought crept into my mind. Only two things have changed over the last eighteen years: how old I have gotten and how young the Marines have remained.

At eleven years old, the first two Marines we hosted appeared to me as giants, towering over me with muscles bulging from completion of some of the toughest training in the world. One had a young family with him; my dad laid out our old Thomas the Tank Engine set with which their son could play. They had an air of confidence and good humor that made for a wonderful holiday.

A month before they came over, the United States had invaded Afghanistan in response to the terror attacks on September 11th. While I had not given it any thought at eleven years old, the reality set in this year as I looked at the six young men who were barely out of high school. For eighteen years, my family has hosted Marines for Thanksgiving and for those eighteen years, our country has been waging a war in Afghanistan. We are now sending men and women to fight an enemy in a war that began before either was born. An entire generation that has only known a country at war is now preparing to take part in it.

The Children’s Crusade

The two young men we first had over for the holiday were roughly the same age as the Marines we had over this year. The younger being eighteen and the older being in his early twenties. What went unsaid during dinner, in the wake of 9/11, was the understanding that both would most likely be deployed in the following months. Each inevitably did multiple tours in the Middle East, with deployments lasting upwards of a year.

With a war being conducted for so long and so far away, it is hard for the majority of Americans to reflect on such a conflict each day. The reminder comes when there are casualties reported or during an election year when a politician promises to end the war. But we cannot lose sight of the human element that makes war so difficult to bear.

Over the years, my brother and I exchanged correspondence with some of the Marines that had dinner with our family. They were kind enough to respond to our letters when they could, leaving out significant details and entertaining the questions of children who were not much younger than themselves.

I once watched my mother on the phone, in tears, with the mother of a Marine on Thanksgiving. After speaking with her son, she asked to speak with the host and thank them, bringing the reality of everyone’s circumstance crashing down. I have seen her go down the line, hugging each young man who was in our home, asking them to be safe and promising to pray for them, while choking back tears.

I am now at the age where I can no longer escape the reality of war and conflict. They are not just fought by humans, anonymous to the body politic; war will always be fought by children. Afghanistan will soon be fought by the children of those who were children when the war began. Even without casualties, our war in Afghanistan would be a tragedy.

Family Christmas

Despite the crowded table at Thanksgiving this year, there was a noticeable gap in our gathering. A week prior to the holiday, my brother deployed to Afghanistan for the second time in less than a year. We have both missed Thanksgivings in the past, due to our respective careers. We have missed birthdays as a result of living apart for over a decade. But this will be the first time either of us has missed a family Christmas.

Sitting in a restaurant with him and his wife, a few days before he shipped out, I asked him a question. “If someone had told you, eighteen years ago, that you would be sent to fight in the same war, would you have believed them?” My brother smiled and shook his head. “No,” he said.

At eleven and thirteen years old, respectively, we watched the towers fall. We listened to the increase in artillery and small arms fire from Camp Pendleton as the Marines prepared to invade Afghanistan. We wrote our letters to friends and waited with families when they returned. Years later, we listened to the artillery again and watched planes and helicopters carry out maneuvers over our house in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. Distant childhood memories have come crashing back in the last month.

I am not sure what Christmas will be like without him, but I imagine that my family will do their best. We will contact him as best we can and wish him a Merry Christmas. We will exchange gifts and watch basketball. We will call relatives and share laughs. On our own, however, in the privacy of our rooms at the end of the day, breasts will be clutched, and tears will be shed.

I cannot speak for my parents, as I am not a parent, and will not pretend to know their minds. But as a younger brother, who was often mistaken for a slightly shorter twin, I can attest to what will be my emotions. Living on opposite sides of the country for over ten years leads to a kind of numbness to each other’s absence in our lives. But one’s absence brought on by war, particularly one that began before we entered high school, has brought on a kind of loneliness that I have never felt before. The kind that causes you to forget how to breathe or simply won’t let you.

Our Shared Duties

Do not misconstrue my general disdain for war, nor my vicious disdain for the War on Terror, for contempt of my brother’s career. My brother’s photo, in full dress, sits on my desk and I point it out to every visitor in my home. “That’s my brother,” I say. “The pride I feel for him and his accomplishments exceeds all human understanding of the concept.” Someone once asked me, not too long ago, if my love of family exceeded my love of country; would my loyalty to my family take precedent over my loyalty to the United States? Without hesitation, I said, “Yes, always.”

Over the years, as our paths have diverged, I have come to an understanding of our different, but shared duties as citizens. My brother has pledged himself, his very life, to an idea. An idea that is the United States and all that it encompasses. Not to a politician or to the state, but the fundamental premise woven into the tapestry of our founding documents. He is prepared to defend this idea at all costs.

My duty, and the duty of all civilians, is far simpler and much less dangerous. We are tasked with ensuring that we only send those who have chosen to serve into harm’s way when it is absolutely necessary. We must ensure that our wars are justified, reasonable, winnable and constitutional, with defined objectives and clarified enemies. But such criteria render nearly all war impossible.

Afghanistan is none of those things and the recent advent of the Afghanistan Papers, confirming nearly twenty years of suspicion, has solidified our task. Our duty as civilians is to end the war and bring our troops home. I owe this to my brother, as we all do to all servicemembers.

Brotherly Love

On Christmas Eve, I will be at mass with my mother, while my dad acts as an usher while wearing a Christmas tie and my Phillies Santa hat. I will see friends from high school and middle school. I will see old teachers. I will enjoy the story of the Nativity. I will be thinking of my brother, as he soars over the mountains of Afghanistan in the moonlight. And I will be wondering if either he or I will find the star in the darkness that will lead him home.

Tags: AfghanistanAfghanistan PaperschristmasHolidaysWar on Terror
Share28TweetShareSendScan
Previous Post

Kenyon Tomlinson can bring a multi-dimensional athlete to a college football program

Next Post

Harden, Westbrook or Leonard: Who Was The Better Player This Decade?

Rory Margraf

Rory Margraf

Rory Margraf is the author of "I Know My Rights: A Children's Guide to the Bill of Rights and Individual Liberty" and "I Own Myself: A Children's Guide to Self-Ownership and Voluntaryism." He is a 2019 Writing Fellow with America's Future Foundation.

Related Posts

You Own Your Vote
Election 2020

You Own Your Vote

29th May 2020
Live Updates: Biden Continues to Lead Trump Amid Coronavirus Impact
COVID-19

Live Updates: Biden Continues to Lead Trump Amid Coronavirus Impact

20th July 2020
Rhode Island’s Governor is Crossing a Very Thick Line
COVID-19

Rhode Island’s Governor is Crossing a Very Thick Line

28th March 2020
Opinion: U.S. COVID-19 Tests and U.K. Deaths ‘Exxagerated’
COVID-19

Opinion: U.S. COVID-19 Tests and U.K. Deaths ‘Exxagerated’

20th July 2020
The Ignoble Tradition of the Mad King
Opinion

The Ignoble Tradition of the Mad King

16th January 2020
A 180 On Murder
Drugs In America

A 180 On Murder

16th January 2020
Next Post
Harden, Westbrook or Leonard: Who Was The Better Player This Decade?

Harden, Westbrook or Leonard: Who Was The Better Player This Decade?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

No Result
View All Result

LATEST STORIES

In Rob We Trust…I Hope

by Olamide Olatunbosun
1 year ago
0

Major English Soccer Match Postponed After Protests

Major English Soccer Match Postponed After Protests

by John Hepke
2 years ago
0

Duke of Edinburgh Dies ‘Peacefully’, at Windsor Castle, aged 99

Duke of Edinburgh Dies ‘Peacefully’, at Windsor Castle, aged 99

by John Hepke
2 years ago
0

Myanmar’s Political Leader Detained in Raid

Myanmar’s Political Leader Detained in Raid

by Eli Ridder
2 years ago
0

Categories

  • 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
  • Breaking News
  • Brexit
  • Business
  • California
  • Canada
  • Capital Punishment
  • Celebrity
  • Comedy
  • Conflict
  • Conservative
  • Courts
  • COVID-19
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Drugs In America
  • Election 2020
  • Energy
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Executions In America
  • Guns In America
  • Health
  • Hurricanes
  • Immigration
  • Impeachment Inquiry
  • International
  • intl
  • Investigation
  • LGBTQ
  • Libertarian
  • Live Updates
  • Local
  • Marriage Equality
  • Media
  • Mexico
  • Migrant Crisis
  • Military
  • Missouri
  • Music
  • Nat Disasters
  • NBA
  • Neuroscience
  • News
  • Obituary
  • Opinion
  • philosophy
  • Political
  • Politics
  • Progressive
  • Racism In America
  • Science
  • SCOTUS
  • Short Stories
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Terrorism
  • Transgender
  • Trump Administration
  • Uncategorised
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Virtual Data Room
  • Weather

Recent Posts

  • In Rob We Trust…I Hope
  • Major English Soccer Match Postponed After Protests
  • Duke of Edinburgh Dies ‘Peacefully’, at Windsor Castle, aged 99
  • Myanmar’s Political Leader Detained in Raid
  • 2020-21 NBA Preview
  • Setup menu at Appearance » Menus and assign menu to Footer Navigation

© 2019 PorterMedium

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Weather
  • Int’l
  • Technology
  • Sports

© 2019 PorterMedium