Earl LeClaire

The Conduct of War Earl LeClaire

Put on a jacket - made in Vietnam. Buy a car - made in Japan. Have a beer - brewed in Germany. Buy a cell phone, or some piece of shlock for the bathroom - made in China. So, what do all the wars mean? I'll tell you: someone got richer, someone got dead, someone got maimed, and someone got left with bad karma. For me, bad karma. When I think about the war, I feel like an alcoholic coming off a bender. I become physically and emotionally drained because I'm unsettled and disturbed by the fierceness and the darkness of war, and of what I had to do to stay alive. I could have been out surfing, sailing, fishing, doing anything else but that. However, I chose it. I signed on for it. I believed JFK and his Green Beret / Peace Corps' bullshit, the Buddha / the Bad Buddha, the inverse universes.