Enemies and Friends

I think these chapters pretty much sum up the "war is a paradox" idea. Two men, fighting side by side, become enemies, then friends again; insanity at its best. It's almost amusing and would be somewhat touching if they weren't in a war. Still, it's gotta be just crazy being around all that death...no wonder Jensen gets paranoid after the jackknife fight (which by the way, is sorta sad to think about; fighting over a killing tool, while killing strangers). Oh! and speaking about crazy, when Jensen broke his own nose, after stalking and breaking Strunk's nose--wow. A guy breaks his own nose (with a damn pistol!) just to make things "even" between him and Strunk. Now that's what I call friendship! Their little pact to kill each other if one was wounded was sorta sweet. That's the thing with this book, there's little flickers of happiness in the war, but then something happens, and you remember what you're reading about. I keep getting tricked into believing there's a happy ending somewhere, but I guess that's the point of a war story; there aren't any happy endings ever. Of course Lee's leg had to get blown off, and look into Dave's eyes and ask him not to kill him; I don't think any of these chapters don't include some sort of tear-jerking scene. It's exhausting to read after a while, but I can't stop myself...that sorta sounds like what Clary meant when she said that even though war is terrifying and horrible, we still are somewhat fascinated by it. Makes me think about why people are like that.