Reading #10, Question #1

[Shelly]

After Kiowa's death, many of the men are looking to find someone to
pin the blame on, and many blame themselves. The young boy who showed
Kiowa the picture, Azar after he tells the jokes about Kiowa's death
and sees the body, and Cross because of
his decision to camp out at the field.

In your opinion, was Kiowa's death the fault of one of the soldiers,
or was it just another war death to be blamed on the enemy?

[Emily Barnes]

I personally think that it wasn't really any one person's fault, but
just a casulty of war. It seems like the enemy was waiting to attack
and the use of flashlight gave them precise coordinates to pinpoint
their location. In stressful situations people need normalcy and
showing pictures of girlfriends and turning on a flashlight so the
other person can see it is instinctual. I can understand why everyone
is blaming somebody, though. When some one you are close to suddenly
dies, it is difficult to let that go. Most people like to have a real,
physical person to blame for such circumstances, even if in reality
"In the field though, the causes were immediate. A moment of
carelessness or bad judgement or plain stupidity carried consequences
that lasted forever." (O'Brien 170). To have somebody to blame makes
it easier to come to terms with a sudden death, but in reality it was
not any specific person's fault.

[Conley]

I agree with Emily on this one. The death of Kiowa was in no way,
shape, or form the fault of one soldier. If anything, it was the
enemies fault. Kiowa was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and
lucky placement of the mortar by the enemy lead to his death. When the
boy used the flashlight to show Kiowa the picture of his girlfriend,
there was no way the enemy could have seen it. It was pouring rain and
the river was swollen making it impossible for the enemy to see the
light from way across the river. "...the Song Tra Bong overflowed its
banks and the land turned into a deep, thick muck for a half a mile on
either side"(O'Brien 142). From this quote you can see the enemy had
to be around a mile away from the soldiers. I do not think it is
Cross' fault either because he was just taking commands. "The order
had come from higher..." (164). Yes, he should have moved to a higher,
more protected area but that does not stop the enemy from shooting at
them. Whenever a soldier dies the other soldier's try to pinpoint the
blame. They feel as if they could have done something to stop it and
think of ways to make it their faullt. Sometimes it may be their fault
but usually its just part of the war and unpreventable. The death of
Kiowa was just another death of an unfortunate soldier in the war that
could have only been prevented if there was not a war.

> > or was it just another war death to be blamed on the enemy?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Kevin]

I agree with both Emily and Jacob on this matter. I don't think the
death of Kiowa can be blamed on the actions of one soldier. The
enemies were already probably holmed in on their location, so there
wasn't really anything the soldiers could do except brace for the
mortars. The weather just gave the enemy an added advantage because
they knew the soldiers weren't going to be advancing in that type of
rain. Cross realized he should have moved the platoon and blames the
incident on himself because "the order came from higher, true, but...
he should've moved to higher ground for the night, should've radioed
in false coordinates," (O'Brien 164). By having to be in control of
the platoon, the most fault was self-directed by Cross, when it really
shouldn't have been.

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Megan]

I agree with all three previous posts; no one person is to blame for
Kiowa's death. Certain actions could have been made to make the
conditions of the night better and safer, like Cross moving the
platoon to higher grounds, but the chances of being attacked by
enemies would always be the same. Cross was given orders from a higher
power to camp out at those coordinates; the young soldier turned on
his flashlight in the pouring rain and muck; Azar made dumb jokes
about "biting the dirt" and "eating shit" (O'Brien 165). All three of
these incidents could have not happened, and the platoon still could
have been attacked. Norman Bowker even said it was "nobody's
fault" (176). It was a causualty of the war that could have happened
at any time. Also, I agree with Emily that the soldiers are placing
the blame on themselves individually because they need to better
understand how a fellow soldier died. They are fighting an unseen
enemy so the real reason of death can't be seen by the other soldiers.
They can't place the blame on the enemy because they can't see them or
take revenge. They place the blame on themselves because they were
near Kiowa when he died; they can be mad at themselves for losing a
friend; they can beat themselves up and make the situation more
understandable. However, each man knows it wasn't their fault. It was
the war's fault, the enemy's fault, Vietnam's fault, the government's
fault for sending them there. It wasn't a fellow soldier's fault for
an unexpected death. There was no way the men could have stopped that
from happening.

[Ben]

I agree with everyone, believing that Kiowa’s death was no one’s
fault. No one could have expected the mortar, and none of their
decisions could have changed the situation. The situation was purely
luck of the draw, and solder could have been in the path of the
mortar, and like Kevin said the enemy knew the solders would not
advance in rain that heavy. “Looking out towards the river, he knew
for a fact that he had made a mistake setting up here” (O’Brian). I
think that all of the solders felt guilty because the one to blame
could not be found or held responsible. The truth is in war It is the
enemies job to find a person’s mistakes.

[John]

I am in between on whose fault it was for Kiowa's death it was partly
a causality of war and also partly Lieutenant Cross's since he did not
listen to the villagers advice. He explains in the book that even
though the villagers warned him, he still followed his orders and took
up a perimeter where his superiors had commanded him. In the middle
of the night "the Song Tra Bong had overflowed its banks. The field
turned to slop, everything soft and mushy." leaving the soldiers in a
marshy field (O'Brien 168). This accident would have been prevented
if Lieutenant Cross scout the area and reported back to the
headquarters that the river would overflow by the next morning. The
headquarters might have listened saving the life of Kiowa but they
might not have agreed and the efforts of the scout would have been for
nothing. This is the decision of a good leader and the difference
between a war won or lost.

[Natese]

Emily made a good point. There was no one to really blame for the war.
War is war. The ememy is always lurking behind every unexpected corner
at anytime. There could be a chance that the Vietcong were watching
the field and were just waiting for the perfect time to fire. No
soldier to take the blame because there were so many events leading up
to this effect. The soldiers believed "You could blame the war, ...the
idiots that made the war, ...blame Kiowa for going to it, .. you could
blame the rain..." There was not one specific reason for his death.

[Natese]

Sorry I didn't state the page number with the quote. (O'Brien 177)

[Nicole]

Death happens when you least expect it, especially in war. There was
no one to really blame for his death, but in a situation like this,
the blame has to be pinned on someone. Putting the blame on someone
else always makes people feel better, because then they have something
to believe, Kiowa's death was a part of war. Your best friend could be
standing right beside you, carrying on a conversation and the next
minute they are on the ground with a bullet hole in their body
somewhere.

On Feb 22, 4:45 pm, Shelly <lcshellb...@gmail.com> wrote: