CAD+Modern+Parallel

=A Centurion's E-mails=

By Dan Ephron and Christian Caryl //Newsweek//

 * Courtesy of the Secher familyWeary Warrior: ‘This war is futile,’ wrote Secher after three months in Iraq. But he still believed in it. ||

Nov. 6, 2006 issue - Robert Secher had a passion for history. Until his death in Iraq on Oct. 8, the 33-year-old Marine could recount all the major battles of the Civil War. He studied the Holocaust, in which members of his father's family lost their lives. In recent e-mails home, he said he was reading about Vietnam and the Mexican civil war. But his favorite books were on ancient Rome: he was captivated by the centurions, who commanded from the front and led by example. "He talked about being a soldier since he was 6 years old," his mother, Elke Morris, told NEWSWEEK last week. "He wanted to be tested in battle." Secher signed up for the Marines when he was 17. He served on the Afghan border after the attacks of September 11 and later pressed for a transfer to the front lines in Iraq. He ended up in the insurgents' largest stronghold, Anbar province. His job there was one of the toughest in Iraq: making raw Iraqi recruits ready and able to take over the fight against the militants. Secher found the task exasperating and often discouraging; in e-mails and letters home, he expressed doubt that the Iraqi military would ever be ready for a handover, and criticized the way the Bush administration had directed the war. "Without the U.S., this army will fail and get eaten alive by the insurgents," he told his father in an e-mail this past April. Chatting with a friend during a brief leave five months later, he spoke of suspicions that some of his trainees were loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr and would have no compunction about betraying their American instructors if the radical Shiite cleric told them to. At other times Captain Secher's messages expressed fondness for his Iraqi trainees and respect for their courage. He was no pacifist. His parents describe him as an unswerving Republican, and his own dispatches consistently defend the invasion of Iraq even as he anguishes over its dwindling prospects of success. "Don't mistake us for Cindy Sheehan," Pierre Secher told NEWSWEEK at his Memphis home (a reference to the California woman who became an iconic opponent of the war after her son's death in Iraq). "To me, pacifism could have led to Hitler's victory. We might have all been speaking German and Japanese right now." But as President George W. Bush speaks positively of setting benchmarks for Iraqi troops to "stand up" and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declares that their training is going well, Captain Secher's messages from the front give a more complicated picture. His e-mails have been edited for space, and some typos have been fixed for clarity, but the words and feelings are entirely his own. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15458906/site/newsweek/

**__Summary__**
Robert Secher was a man who for most of his life wanted to become a soldier. He had signed up for the marines at the age of seventeen and served in Afganistan after the twin tower attacks. Later, he moved on to the front lines in Iraq where he made Iraqi recruits ready and able to take over the fight against the militants. He emailed his wife and friends at the front lines telling them how some of the trainees that he was teaching were loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr and Secher critizied the way Bush's administration directed the war. Later that year Captin Secher, died.

Like Peyton Fahrquhar and many others, there was a longing for a past life; a nostalgia for what there was before. In both of these cases, it was a nostalgia for family and the initial lifestyles they had before being confronted with incessant conflict. For the most part, the similarities between the two stories are just those of the emotions of the characters, Peyton Fahrquhar and Captain Secher. They are confronted with the possibility of death and they turn to their families, be it by e-mail or by mental connections, as did Peyton Fahrquhar. So, it can be said that the best comparison between the two is their reliance of memories, recollections, and their past lives as comfort.

__**How The Stories Parallel One Another**__

 * __"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"__**
 * Fahrquhar invading the North to break the Owl Creek Bridge
 * Fahrquhar died believing that he was fighting for the right thing
 * Took place in a war, Civil War


 * __"A Centurion's E-mails"__**
 * Captin Secher is like Fahrquhar, he was sent to Iraq on the over all goal to stop nuclear proliferation and to help the Iraqi's gain freedom
 * Secher got killed believing that he was helping America
 * Took place in a war, The War on Terrorism

__Theme__

 * Time** - Like "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", there is the aspect of time which adds to the story. In this case, the fact that there were many e-mails and such long periods of separation only emphasizes the personal struggles being endured.

__**Background**__
"A Centurion's E-mails" by Dan Ephron and Christian Caryl tells the story about a man who went and fought in the Iraq War. This man's name was Robert Secher. Secher enjoyed learning about wars that have happened in the past, and decided to join the marines and fight himself. After the events of 9/11 he went to fight in the war.

**__Authors' Purpose__**
Ephron and Caryl wanted to tell the story of a soldier fighting in the war in Iraq. They wanted to give an account of what was going through a soldier's mind during the war.

__**Since 9/11**__
Since the events on 9/11 people either support the war or are against it. Lots of Americans right after the tragic events on that horrid day had a lot of patriotism and support for the troops. Now, the war just keeps going on and there is less support for the war. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," it talks about an event in the life of a man named Fahrquhar during the Civil War. It shows how someone feels nostalgia right before being killed. Fahrquhar missed his wife and wanted to return home and be safe again. Soldiers today in the war are feeling homesick and other forms of nostalgia. Soldiers have to leave their families for months at a time. Along with that, there is less support for The War on Terrorism, and even soldiers themselves are beginning to doubt the progress in the war. This loss of support is expressed in the story "A Centurion's E-mails." In this story, Robert Secher started doubting if the Iraqi military will ever be able to take and keep control over the country, so the United States can leave the war. Since 9/11 people have become less and less supportive of the war and are completely against it. Very few others still support the war and feel we should finish what we started.

Back to First Page Overview Modern Parallel Works Cited