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theU.S.soldieratwartodayisoneofalethalandheavilyarmoredagent
ofviolence"cladinhigh-techprotectivearmaments(MacLeish51).Part
ofthistechno-centricmodelinsideandcertainlyoutsidethemilitaryisa
hyper-ableistimageofhis(lessso,her)bodywitha"torsobulkedoutby
bodyarmor...andhiddenbyblackwraparoundballisticsunglassesand
recessed behind an armor collar and the rim of a Kevlar helmet"
(MacLeish 51). This image-complex has become so ubiquitous that it
has become firmly anchored in the popular culture, not only in films
(often shot with financial or logistical support from the Pentagon) but
also in children's playrooms. One of the world's leading toy
manufacturers, Mattel, maker of the Barbie doll, is selling a plastic
figure of a G.I. in full armament; it even used to offer a version of this
figure as President George W. Bush in military gear. Surrounded by
protectivearmorandlaterbytechnologicalequipment,theableist,well-
nigh invincible, and invulnerable figure of the U.S. soldier-hero is a
high-profileculturalicon.
Such technology-supported presumed invulnerability is of course
spectral, as being in harm's way will more likely than not bring harm
upon combatants. Thus, the soldier's body, his (increasingly often now
also her) very own personal weapon, intended to act as abody of war
inflicting harm on others, can indeed get harmed and end up as a
disabled body, physically, through missing limbs, but also mentally
through brain damage or trauma of which PTSD is the most often
discussed form. In their reflections on the last decades of U.S. warfare
during the Gulf War, in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hardt and Negri have
spoken of the ideology of virtual war with "bodyless [sic] soldiers"
(Mu ltitude43-46). What might be added to their argument and what
mattersinthepresentcontextisacuriousdialectic:justwhen,inpublic
perception at least, U.S. air strike capability in tandem with "intelligent
weapons" seem to keep military personnel on the ground out of harm's
way, the disabled soldier's body surfaces like a return of the repressed,
thebodyatwarassimultaneouslyalsothebodyofwar.
Evenwhile physicalableism inthemilitary continuestobenotonly
an ideological but also a practical necessity (to attract volunteers), it
nonetheless remains a truism that the figure of the soldier is often a
haunted one, haunted by the anticipation of a disabling injury. As the
Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit organization, recently pointed
out, four out of five service men and women have a friend who was