The gap between war and peace

I was very intrigued by Sandlin's article Losing the War. I like how Sandlin used the repetitive theme of peace and war. At the beginning of the story Sandlin states that through his reporting he found that there is an extremely vast gap "between the experience of war and the experience of peace." (p. 318) Also toward the beginning, when Sandlin's dad avoided talking to him about his war experiences, Sandlin claims that the truth about war is that "the sense that what happened over there simply can't be told in the language of peace." (p. 320) I really like how he phrased both of these thoughts. It tells readers that it's hard for soldiers to talk about their experiences because they are brutal and don't want to relive it, without explicitly stating it like that. I also like how Sandlin ended his story by referencing the gap between war and peace again. He wraps up his story by saying, "War ends at the moment when peace permanently wins out...when the next generation starts to wonder whether the whole thing ever really happened." (p. 360) I think this was a solid finish for his story because it fit with everything else he was saying throughout his story. War ends when people stop talking about it and worrying about it and are actually able to move on with their lives. But it doesn't completely end until the next generation because the men who fought in the war aren't yet at peace because many of them still have startling nightmares about their experiences at war. Can journalism help close the gap between war and peace? Can journalism help inform the later generations so that they are more knowledgeable about what happened during war?