I read it. I think I'm going to go home and hug my wife.  

Perhaps I'm weird, but having already lost a close friend in Iraq, and having plenty of male soldier relatives who all cast a cold black Irish eye on life and death, I didn't find this devastating at all.

I found it extremely wise, humble, mature, useful, often verbose, always painfully honest to the point of being self-deprecating and utterly ruthless in its refusal to countenance any bullshit, be it of the mawkish emotional or sloppy intellectual variety.

It's good to know that there are people in this world who have can write so many quietly wise things. I only hope that I can attain such a state of wisdom before my time is up.

Horseman, pass by

Chris, he said it best "I'm dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends."

I read all of it, and it is devastating.

Horseman, pass by indeed. Lost for words really. The sincere pop culture references in his post just enhance the proximity of the emotion. "A great man in his pride, confronting murderous men."

Condolences to his family and friends.

Nor dread nor hope attend

A dying animal;

A man awaits his end

Dreading and hoping all;

Many times he died,

Many times rose again.

A great man in his pride

Confronting murderous men

Casts derision upon

Supersession of breath;

He knows death to the bone

Man has created death.  

Here's another, equally touching "Death of a Soldier," as related by one C. Hitchens (noted on the Spine at the time): http://tinyurl.com/yua3z3

"Letters from the grave" are the polemicist's gold.  The dying utterence is endowed, to an ultimate degree, with what French existentialists call "authenticity" and the Japanese call "sincerity".  Pathos is the Great Communicator.  We attend, choke up and bow our heads in reverence.

Olmsted asked that his post not be used in the polemic, but, as hilzoy notes, it was anyway.  That makes Orr suspect, because I think his use of the excerpt is a pointed one.

Those for and against war -- or a war -- need only shop the posthumous "letters from the battlefield" to fuel their arguments.  Usually, of course, it's the anti-war crowd which benefits most, because war -- good or bad -- is a horrible experience, and morbid war stories or memoirs of the dead are the anti-war crowd's biggest cudgel, like vegans arranging visits to the abattoire.  It's a cheap shot.  And it's effective.  Yet, while we righteously abjure violence and war, those who do not will have their way with us.  But no matter -- our superior sensibilities will have enobled our obliteration.

For me, Olmsted's dying words amount to the same as Saving Private Ryan's Captain Miller's dying words"  "Earn this."

Reminded once again that it is our solemn duty to ensure we choose wisely when we go to war, and that we failed in this duty.  Now the families of our brave men and women pay the price.  

You know, I didn't support this war. But I'll dipped if I'll ever utter a cross word at a American Solider. Anyways, I have some sad news to report. This is just too sad for words.... Andy Olmsted R.I.P. I am glad that he did write this part...

Mr. Orr...

Sorry, but I find your heated protest a bit disingenuous.  "Charge with...being suspect"?? Hmm...afraid I can't grasp that one.   I do "suspect" I touched a nerve.  Out of Olmsted's entire valedictory, the passage this one was closest to being a polemic. (And he said as much.)  I assume you didn't choose it at random or for literary merit.  I assume the choice had a point.  So, your choice is your comment.

Anyway, what makes you think I disagree with the excerpt?  I certainly do agree with it.  It's axiomatic, that before waging war a people be fully aware of its human cost.  I think Olmsted is gently suggesting that for this one we didn't.  I think you are, too, and are letting Olmsted speak for you.

Instead of crying lèse majesté, try a gracious, "sorry if it seemed that way, I didn't mean it."  Of course, if the heated protest is just for the record, I understand.

Milblogger inbound to Fiddler's Green... DoD Identifies Army Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Jan. 3 in As Sadiyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents

whoa, chris, I like that frisky attitude. And here I thought you were just a movie lovin' geek.  You're a real fighter.  I like big jim (when he isn't insulting gays that is) and I sure like your stuff. Keep it gentlemanly and no low blows or kidney shots. Otherwise, may the best man prevail!

Jaunty:  "Keep it gentlemanly and no low blows or kidney shots. Otherwise, may the best man prevail!"  Why are you giving Chris advice?  He's not being "frisky."  He's being straightforward.  And certainly not defensive.  By the way, I didn't find the use of this excerpt at all polemical simply because there was no indication, one way or the other, of Olmstead's feelings about the war.  It's heart-breaking, too, because of its entirely youthful, slangy voice.  

P.S.  Chris.  This is off topic:  My husband and I have been on an Antonioni  jag.  Any chance you'd do some essay?  We were astonished by that long tracking shot at the end.  Though we didn't have a clue of what actually happened there until my husband went on line afterwards for some critical thought.  I've fallen in love, and I think he leaves Fellini in the dust (God I hate that Jesus in the Sky scene in Dolce Vita).  

A tragedy. Andy Olmstead, RIP. We need people like him more than most of us realize, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. God grant peace and serenity to his loved ones, and wisdom to those who would presume to husband his and his comrades'  legacy.

mollysimon -

If you like Antonioni films you might like "Killer of Sheep," a recently released film from the 1970s which uses an Italian neo-realist style to depict life in Watts.

Thanks ND.  I might just track it down.

Hey Molly, don't compare Antonioni with Fellini. We're talking about Masters-with-capital-M here. They're absolute in their uniqueness. And their sensitivities and universes are completely different:

Antonioni, a bourgeois (ashamed of his bourgeois condition, but still a bourgeois) living in a cold, disanchanted world and with the aesthetic sense of a Michelangelo.

Fellini, a man of the people, mad, full of heat and joy, feeric and able to reach the heart. Don't stick to La Dolce Vita. To get Fellini properly see before "Nights of Cabiria" and "Amarcord". There you'll get the man and will be able to see La Dolce Vita with different eyes...

Of course, one can have favourites. But if I had to choose the best italian director ever, my choice would be Visconti. My God, the man kills me, knocks me down completely. "No siamo piu a Venezia".

Luis, my man, where've you been?  Maybe I'll take your recommendations, but I just can't stand the surreal stuff.  

Antonio Di Sica was enjoyable but more conventional...have you even seen Indiscretion of an American Wife with Montgomery Clift and Jennifer Jones?  A scream...and a young Dick Beymer (7 years before Tony in WSS) has a cameo...

You know Jaunty, I was thinking of Di Sica.  My mom took me to Garden of the Finzi-Continis when I was a kid.  Naturally, I didn't get a thing, but I'd like to revisit.  The bottom line is, I'm moving on from the French!

molly, and I got his first name wrong, it was Vittorio De Sica...god the old brain cells ain't what they used to be..

Didn't know that Vittorio de Sica had made films in America. I'll try to get them.

No surrealism there Molly. Cabiria is the story of a prostitute that wants to get married and have a normal life. It's very realistic and simultaneously very tender (Giuletta Massina has the role of her life there).

And Amarcord is the story of several characters in a small town taken from Fellini's memories as a child. Incredibly funny.

On the Garden of Fizzi-Continis, I didn't like it very much. Sure, it is still a great film. But De Sica is not at his best when portraying the decadence of the "grandes familles". That's Visconti domain. Woman, go immediately to your DVD club and get "Senso" and "The Leopard". You'll get the thrill of your life.

Luis:  "The decadence of the "grandes familles".  Now THAT I can get behind.  I will immediately be renting Visconti (when I have a spare minute!).