Sean Huze Sandstorm

A little about Iraq and The Sandstorm 

My initial reaction to this work was of disbelief. This feeling occurred when the landscape, and environment were described. The environment included dead bodies littering the ground. I feel like this because I believe that no people should have to suffer through an ordeal like this one. It is life changing; society never looks the same after being surrounded by dead civilians. I was surprised at how young these Marines were. The youngest was 18 and the leader was only 24. They lost their best friends while fighting in Iraq. They were so young to be in a place that could in fact end their lives. I scared me when in the play, one of the Marines said that he experienced indescribable joy when no Marines were killed, and hundreds of enemy killed. What scared me more was when a Marine was taking pictures of the dead bodies. That seems overly brutal and something that should not happen even at war. There is no respect for the dead. I understand why the Marine would rather see enemies killed. It is a war and war is about killing enemies. But the fact of the indescribably joy, that’s the scary part. Another area of concern for me was when the doc said he would not help a single enemy. I understand that they are the enemy, but they are still human and they are still hurt. There is a difference between fighting a war, and just being brutal and immoral. These Marines lost their friends in the war. They also could have been killed anytime, like when mail finally arrived and they were reading letters and the artillery rounds began exploding. They were just trying to go home, and return to their sense of security for a second. The war would not let them. They were in a place that was trying to kill them, by enemies, heat, lack of water and sleep. This play was a very interesting and sad piece of literary work to read. I enjoyed it in the fact that I learned more about the war, but it was sad in the fact of how humans treated each other. Brutality seemed to control every aspect. But I am glad there were men brave enough to take part. 

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