A War to End All Campaigns - Whitney Terrell

[BridgeTheGap]

THE vibe in Missouri right now feels different than the usual “it’s too early to think about politics” malaise. Four years ago, we were up in arms from the get-go. I’d tramp over to my parents’ house like a Union picket and unload on my Republican father — a very quiet man — as I watched the war reports on CNN. The eight or so blocks that separated our houses sprouted a Hooverville of yard signs. Now I can jog an hour and not see one “Support the Troops” magnetic ribbon or a blue “War Is Not the Answer!” plea. Instead, our quiet neighborhoods remind me of de Chirico paintings: empty, well manicured, but with some unnamed anxiety hovering outside the frame.

I date the change to Oct. 10, 2006. That day, Jason Brown, a member of our state House of Representatives, returned from his tour of duty in Iraq with a sniper’s bullet in his lung.

On the news, we watched Mr. Brown arrive at the Kansas City airport and, wincing, grab his two children and his wife. Then he spoke to reporters, his voice wheezy but firm. How did he, a Republican, feel about the war?

“I’m just really happy to be home,” he said. And that was about it.

The war felt too complicated for slogans after that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09terrell.html