Last Letters Home

Against my better judgment, being that Sunday nights are always depressing enough without any outside influences (especially the last night of a 2-week vacation), we finally watched HBO's Last Letters Home last night.

In case you've never heard of it, this is a documentary that features several families of soldiers who died in Iraq reading the last letters they received from their fallen family members. I knew going into it that it would be tough to watch, but I thought it would be worth it.

Tough to watch is the understatement of the year - we both were complete blathering idiots by the time it was over with tears everywhere - but it was well worth the difficulty. I suspect everyone, especially me, tends to forget sometimes that those casualty numbers we hear actually represent real people with families and hopes and dreams. When we see their names scrolling across the screen, or hear of their deaths, I think it's easy to forget just how much pain their deaths have caused someone somewhere and what a void has been left as a result of their passing.

This film makes it abundantly clear just how big a loss each one of those deaths really represents. The letters the families read were incredibly moving - some poignant and very personal, others short and to the point, but with an overriding sense of foreboding that made it clear just how terrifying the war is for soldiers. They each seemed to know that they would likely not make it back home alive, and they said the kinds of things to their family members that people normally don't say but which are incredibly important to say.

The families also talked about how they learned of the soldiers' deaths and how their lives have changed since. Each story was completely heart wrenching.

I found myself thinking that every American ought to watch this film. No matter whether you support the war or not, it's important to keep in mind just how huge the price is when people start dying in the course of the war. 1,300+ lives lost in Iraq may not sound like much when compared to Vietnam or World War II, but when taken down to a personal level, the loss is incredible.