TWO ENDLESS WARS: THE AMERICAN WAR IN IRAQ and THE AMERICAN WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

J. Kael Weston, The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan (New York: Knopf, 2016) ("For those fortunate enough to survive war . . . medical doctors in military burn care units who treat wounded veterans describe a key part in the recovery process. They call it 'the mirror test.' In this defining moment, morphine is no longer necessary as treatment has progressed. IVs and catheters are removed. Bandages are peeled back. The disfigured patients must then contempt a first look into a mirror at his or her new self, The most familiar image that once greeted them morning and night over a toothbrush or under a razor--their own face--is gone. Doctors pay close attention to this critical juncture. Will the patient's gaze into the mirror signal one of recognition--horror, sadness, pity, surprise, resolve--or will the patient instead turn away? Will he or she begin to accept the same, but different, person now inhabiting the glass? "Medical staff let patients decode on their own when the time is right, as skin can be grafted but acceptance cannot, Days, weeks, months can pass." Id. at xviii. When, if ever, America and Americans gaze into their collective and individual mirrors after over a decade of continuous war, will they recognize themselves? Will they be horrified as to what they have become? Food for thought. "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in more than 1,100 major burn victims and 1,700 amputees among the 50,000-plus combat causalities--the total killed or injured among U.S. troops. In December 2014 the Congressional Budget Office reported 3,482 hostile deaths, pus 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan. An Additional estimated 400,000 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, mild traumatic brain injury, or both. These numbers continue to rise for those with visible and invisible wounds, not to mention the cumulative toll on veterans' families." "Iraqi and Afghan civilians have suffered on an even greater scale, Hundreds of thousands left dead and wounded, along with untold cases of psychological damage form unending warfare. Towns turned into battle zones and family compounds made of mud raided in darkness. Unlike U.S. troops and me, they could not redeploy. As we returned home, Iraqis and Afghans had no option but to remain amid persistent violence, caught in a truly forever war." Id. at xvi. "This was tough, historic terrain. Just over the border in Montana the brash and theatrical George Armstrong Custer had been killed in June 1876 atop a green hill, surrounded by a joint fighting force of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahoe. Newspaper headlines at the time exclaimed 'Terrible Butchery by the Indians!' and "Poor Custer' while avoiding his real epitaph: the inveterate gambler and Civil War hero, no less by age twenty-three at Gettysburg, had gone to America's frontier for gold, glory, and gore, In other words, Lieutenant Colonel Custer had ventured west as a veteran of one war seeking more war--and sure got it. "I myself learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that invasions and insurgencies--who did what, why, first, and to whom--differed in their historical details and settings But the outcomes were the same. Revenge recycled, with no storybook ever-after endings. "No mythical last stands." Id. at 7. From the book jacket: "John Kael Weston represented the United States for more than a decade as a State Department official. Washington acknowledged his multi-year work in Fallujah with Marines by awarding him one of its highest honors, the Secretary of State's medal of heroism.").