ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BlBHOGRAPHY                                        45


together for so long in the desert that any time they talk to a stranger they have
the tone of people clearing up misconceptions.
   "Everybody's so in sync," said Lance Cpl. Benjamin Bradshaw.
   "I could tell you every story Ben tells about his dog, Gretchen," said Lance
Cpl. Brian Archer.
   "German shorthair," Bradshaw said.    "No morals, but a smart dog. 11 ~~ was
almost as if they didn't need Christmas the way the rest of America does to feel
close, to feel like family, a family standing around dipping snuff together and
growing their first mustaches.
   A lot of them said morale had actually improved when they found out they
wouldn't be home for Christmas after all.
   There is a kind of logic to this, a logic that the Marine Corps runs on.
   Capt. Jeremiah Walsh explained: "Everybody wanted to have a date they'd
be going home, but once we found out there would be no date, a great burden
was lifted from us.'1
   Walsh has a master's degree in international relations, and he said he had no
animosity toward Iraqis.
   "I think they're nice people.  I was in Beirut when the bomb went off and
we lost all those Marines, but! don't hate those people either."
   Very professional, but it was reasoning that was out there in irony/sincerity
land too.
   Walsh called a company formation to explain it to his troops. Guidon
pennants rolled in the wind, and Marines did slow rounded facing movements
in the sand.
   "I want to wish all    of you a Merry    Christmas," Walsh said.     "The
surroundings are not what we want, but the camaraderie is here, the morale is
here to do the job.  Hopefully, a diplomatic solution will take precedence, but
if not .
   After all the wristwatches and crossword puzzle books, yo-yOs, footballs and
Frisbees for the troops--one guy even got a box of caviar and quail eggs --
Lt.Col. Chris Cortez, the battalion commander, announced his own gift.  From
6 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon, "in the spirit of Christmas," his troops
would be allowed to listen to their tape recorders and radios without ear-
phones--sound discipline would be relaxed for one day, but one day only.
   There would be volleyball, there would be a lot of dandy games.  But after
5 o'clock, 1700 hours, there would be silence again in the desert, and no lights
again, not even reading under blankets with flashlights, nothing.
   Silence and darkness, along with the gas flares and the stars, and here and
there the old muttered arguments, to fight, not to fight -- not that they'd make
the slightest difference.