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This experience is precisely why you should never ask a war veteran if they've killed someone. Many times they have, but more often than not they've had to watc
by SEJeff 10y ago
This experience is precisely why you should never ask a war veteran if they've killed someone. Many times they have, but more often than not they've had to watch someone they were close with die.
Source: am a veteran
- dpeck 10y agoMaybe if we talked about the horrors of war more we'd have less of them in the future.
- mannykannot 10y agoI wish, but the fact that there was a WWII does not hold out much hope.
- dpatriarche 10y agoWW2 made Europeans and east Asians anti war -- the people in whose countries the wars were fought. It's only Americans and Canadians who view WW2 as the "good" war. Our countries got to play the hero role and beat the super villain, we were largely untouched (relative to what other countries suffered), and at the end there was years of economic prosperity. What's not to like?
- mannykannot 10y agoSorry if I did not make it clear - the much-discussed horrors of WWI did not stop WWII.
- mobiplayer 10y agoWWII was more like a second act of the same war really. Wounds were not closed.
- mannykannot 10y agoYes - I tend to the view that WW2 in Europe was a continuation of WW1, while the War in the Pacific was essentially an independent conflict going on concurrently. Even from that perspective, Germany was not facing an existential threat in 1939, yet chose war.
- ProAm 10y agoMaybe if everyone had to serve we'd achieve the same. Forcing people to talk about some of their profoundly dark times often because they needed a job isn't the way to go about it.
- Normal_gaussian 10y agoThat would require constant and horrific war, otherwise those that served wouldn't see anything. Seems like a non-starter.
- WalterSear 10y agoWell, it don't know where you are, but the US pretty much has that covered. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+has+america+been+at+war&oq=how+long+has+america+been+at+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.9962j0j4&client=tablet-android-google&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+has+america+been+at...
- ProAm 10y agoThe realization you might be called on to kill your fellow man or have another human kill you over imaginary lines and ideals might be enough to get the point across....
- glandium 10y agoYou don't realize you might be called until you are.
- RUG3Y 10y agoIt's a nice hope, but the people initiating the wars are not the ones who fight the wars. We'd have less wars if bankers and politicians had to fight in them.
- edoceo 10y agoWould pay to watch a banker fight a politician
- sangnoir 10y ago> It's a nice hope, but the people initiating the wars are not the ones who fight the wars True enough, but wars tend not to last long after they lose public support (or the population 'suffers from low morale'). Having veterans speak out and seeing flag-draped coffins on the front pages tends to do that (see Vietnam), which is why modern governments try to control the war narrative ("embedded" journalism, psy-ops, etc)
- drdeadringer 10y agoThis sounds like a line from Riker on STTNG. Paraphrased: "Maybe if we felt everyone's deaths as closely as we do the ones close to us, human history would be a whole lot less bloody."
- drdeadringer 10y agoOne of my neighbours is a Vet and I've never asked. I have listened when he's brought it up on his own accord, when he's been on both ends of war violence [giving it or receiving it]. They're not the prettiest images to imagine, let alone experience first hand as he did, but it's mine to listen and his to tell.
- SEJeff 10y agoThankyou, this is exactly the best thing in the world for someone struggling with seeing things that no sensible human being should see.