I wonder, sometimes, on the nature of a people who are so desensitized to war and it's consequences that it was allowed- as though a good thing- for people to see this grotesque show called "Shock and Awe". Labelled like a movie phenomenon, a must see, many flocked to their televisions...even me.
And the next day eyes lit up and many had warm and breathless accommodations for it. Young men clapped on a show of force and power. Others had nothing but praise for it's engineering. Technicians lauded upon it's unprecedented success.
It seemed no one saw this spectacle of "Shock and Awe" as "Shocking and Awful". No one likens this to Japan from WW2, when they were reeling on the defensive- no longer a viable threat to advancing American forces- but were bombed into "submission" not just once, but twice. Bombed over a civilian populace not once, but twice. And the people of Baghdad were bombed and made spectacles of before the entire world. But it wasn't the pain captured. It was false images of a grand, unanimous sentiment of welcome to American liberators. They did not show the thousands of women and children that flooded the hospitals- bodies torn from the fallout and the wreckage. It is not a known fact among Americans that for the entire first day after the bombing, it was mostly only woman and children who filled the hospitals.
Nor is it very well known that these were not the first bombings. During our "peacetime" between these two wars, the "No-Fly Zone" was an expressway for American bombers to continuously unload on this nation. By far, more civilians died from American armaments between these wars alone than those American's who died in the towers. Thousands upon thousands more would die from the starvation inflicted not by Saddam but by American forces and her allies and by American forces using depleted uranium shells- among other things- which led to horrible and gross deformities, both among the current population and continuously among future generations.
But wait...it's not just bleeding heart sentimentalists that have an alternate opinion of the war. There are actual bleeding soldiers out there who share the same opinion. Many of them, in fact. But they cannot freely express their views because many do not seem to know they are directly forbidden to talking to the media without consent under pains of Court Martial. Others simply don't want to jeopardize their standing or confuse themselves on a battlefield where indecision can get them killed. Many fans of war will look at these tapes of war both modern and historic and see a nation pushed by a grand ideal in achieving strategic victory by force for the greater good. I believe you would get a much different opinion on the ground. You will see kids who are being pushed to the front b tales of bravado, patriotism, and just the simple need to instill the philosophy of the arrow- straight ahead and do not waiver or you won't make it home to regret it.
There is a reason why mother's cry when their children are going to war. There is a reason rich children dodge the draft and why many other children attempt to do the same. Because there is a point when you are out there you realize these insane people are pushing you into a meat-grinder. People you never seen personally, people you never met, people who do not know your name. They flag all these virtues and rhetoric and here you are...fighting another people just as scared as you. Being pushed toward the front just like you in order to pursue the benefit of the men who control them. It is a principal highlighted in one of the oldest stories known to man, the Illiad. Young men die for another's ambition, for his transgressions, for his benefit. Time and time and time again it is so common are fiction is doped with tales of the powerful having to convince, persuade, and lead men off to die and we see the trait as noble and virtuous. That a man can deliver a stirring speech that sends more people to die for another "just cause" is commemorated.
Is every war bad...no. But I wonder about it's justifications. The enemies actions are always meant to seem like some out-of-the-blue aggression. Some tyrannical, despotic behavior loathed by the judges of moral decency. In reality...when the smoke clears...we usually see the faults. That there aggression has a history, and in cases like the sinking of the Lusitania, the incident at the Gulf of Ton Kin, the attack on the ship that led to the Spanish American War, and others, that such an aggression never occurred in the first place. That it was engineered by our government to make us fight against good reason by manipulating us through tragedy, loss, and outrage. And by that time we are not inclined to care as much because the past is the past. The dangers over. Let's resume life as it was and forget. And the very same people are taken again- moved through almost the exact same steps- when the next war comes. Children are riled up. The propaganda flows like syrup from every major source of media. When the wounded return they will be silenced. Branded as traitors and expatriates if they express and alternate view. But many do not see that. They only see the images presented to them. The insane idea that our soldiers are happy, ready, and willing to march into a hail of bullets, mortars, and possible forms of weaponry that would turn your hairs white. Yeah, they love that stuff. We just need to cheer them on. That's all they want. A good audience. It's the shock and awe show.
No...It's just shocking, awful, and a repeat at that.
And the next day eyes lit up and many had warm and breathless accommodations for it. Young men clapped on a show of force and power. Others had nothing but praise for it's engineering. Technicians lauded upon it's unprecedented success.
It seemed no one saw this spectacle of "Shock and Awe" as "Shocking and Awful". No one likens this to Japan from WW2, when they were reeling on the defensive- no longer a viable threat to advancing American forces- but were bombed into "submission" not just once, but twice. Bombed over a civilian populace not once, but twice. And the people of Baghdad were bombed and made spectacles of before the entire world. But it wasn't the pain captured. It was false images of a grand, unanimous sentiment of welcome to American liberators. They did not show the thousands of women and children that flooded the hospitals- bodies torn from the fallout and the wreckage. It is not a known fact among Americans that for the entire first day after the bombing, it was mostly only woman and children who filled the hospitals.
Nor is it very well known that these were not the first bombings. During our "peacetime" between these two wars, the "No-Fly Zone" was an expressway for American bombers to continuously unload on this nation. By far, more civilians died from American armaments between these wars alone than those American's who died in the towers. Thousands upon thousands more would die from the starvation inflicted not by Saddam but by American forces and her allies and by American forces using depleted uranium shells- among other things- which led to horrible and gross deformities, both among the current population and continuously among future generations.
But wait...it's not just bleeding heart sentimentalists that have an alternate opinion of the war. There are actual bleeding soldiers out there who share the same opinion. Many of them, in fact. But they cannot freely express their views because many do not seem to know they are directly forbidden to talking to the media without consent under pains of Court Martial. Others simply don't want to jeopardize their standing or confuse themselves on a battlefield where indecision can get them killed. Many fans of war will look at these tapes of war both modern and historic and see a nation pushed by a grand ideal in achieving strategic victory by force for the greater good. I believe you would get a much different opinion on the ground. You will see kids who are being pushed to the front b tales of bravado, patriotism, and just the simple need to instill the philosophy of the arrow- straight ahead and do not waiver or you won't make it home to regret it.
There is a reason why mother's cry when their children are going to war. There is a reason rich children dodge the draft and why many other children attempt to do the same. Because there is a point when you are out there you realize these insane people are pushing you into a meat-grinder. People you never seen personally, people you never met, people who do not know your name. They flag all these virtues and rhetoric and here you are...fighting another people just as scared as you. Being pushed toward the front just like you in order to pursue the benefit of the men who control them. It is a principal highlighted in one of the oldest stories known to man, the Illiad. Young men die for another's ambition, for his transgressions, for his benefit. Time and time and time again it is so common are fiction is doped with tales of the powerful having to convince, persuade, and lead men off to die and we see the trait as noble and virtuous. That a man can deliver a stirring speech that sends more people to die for another "just cause" is commemorated.
Is every war bad...no. But I wonder about it's justifications. The enemies actions are always meant to seem like some out-of-the-blue aggression. Some tyrannical, despotic behavior loathed by the judges of moral decency. In reality...when the smoke clears...we usually see the faults. That there aggression has a history, and in cases like the sinking of the Lusitania, the incident at the Gulf of Ton Kin, the attack on the ship that led to the Spanish American War, and others, that such an aggression never occurred in the first place. That it was engineered by our government to make us fight against good reason by manipulating us through tragedy, loss, and outrage. And by that time we are not inclined to care as much because the past is the past. The dangers over. Let's resume life as it was and forget. And the very same people are taken again- moved through almost the exact same steps- when the next war comes. Children are riled up. The propaganda flows like syrup from every major source of media. When the wounded return they will be silenced. Branded as traitors and expatriates if they express and alternate view. But many do not see that. They only see the images presented to them. The insane idea that our soldiers are happy, ready, and willing to march into a hail of bullets, mortars, and possible forms of weaponry that would turn your hairs white. Yeah, they love that stuff. We just need to cheer them on. That's all they want. A good audience. It's the shock and awe show.
No...It's just shocking, awful, and a repeat at that.