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Not to take away from modern war, but Medieval times must have been really bad. I can't imagine being on the front line knowing I am probably about to be stabbe

Not to take away from modern war, but Medieval times must have been really bad. I can't imagine being on the front line knowing I am probably about to be stabbed or hideously maimed at best. The march into a cloud of arrows which you can see coming in volleys would be absolutely miserable. I find it really hard to picture myself in that type of conflict. Yet, despite being no more clement, and that death is a constant, the idea of my D-Day craft opening up, and being raked with invisible machine gun fire is almost clinical in nature. Airstrikes and missles are so far removed from medieval battles, it would be fair to say that you can sit in a destroyer with AC and comfortably press a button while thinking what happens at the end of your book tonight before bed. I can imagine that, but not the guilt one may feel if any. What a difference distance makes.

Quarrelsome 9y ago
I think its less of a deal considering that you'd have consumed A LOT of propaganda building you up to that moment. Also warfare probably had good opportunities for social mobility compared to other pursuits.
- wscott 9y ago
  And lots of liquid propaganda.
  - goldenkey 9y ago
    I'm having trouble getting the reference..do you mean some type of drug? Or do you mean the soldiers' salary?
    - ataturk 9y ago
      Pretty much every army had soldiers juiced to the edge of their lives--beer, wine, and rum rations were the norm even up into the 1800s.
    - 0d311 9y ago
      I think they may mean alcohol.
    - IntronExon 9y ago
      I would assume that they’re referring to drinking alcohol.
  - cobbzilla 9y ago
    Indeed. The British Royal Navy was handing out rum rations until 1970. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tot_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tot_Day
ourmandave 9y ago
Even with push button ship based missiles someone still has to do recon and assess the destruction to make sure they got the target. Maybe not the guy pushing the button, but someone. Probably the USAF intel analysts that watch war zones through aerial cameras. They are literally 1000s of miles away but still see the full horrors of war. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/24/525413427/for-drone-pilots-warfare-may-be-remote-but-the-trauma-is-real https://www.npr.org/2017/04/24/525413427/for-drone-pilots-wa...
- mmjaa 9y ago
  Special Forces are still way, way further up the line than you think. Those that are calling in the airstrikes are, typically, within a few hundred meters of the target even still, today. Not every square inch of war ground can be targeted with satellites - boots on the ground are still the goto for tactical intelligence gathering.
beloch 9y ago
Look up the Battle of Cannae, wherein Hannibal successfully encircled a force of approximately 80k Romans and killed approximately 70k of them. This wasn't bowmen vs infantry but, primarily, infantry vs infantry. The battle was effectively won once the encirclement was completed, but killing people in close quarter combat is an agonizingly slow process unless there's a rout. Encircled soldiers can't rout. The slaughter continued until darkness, and only after dark did the battle cease, leaving some survivors (night battles were exceedingly rare in antiquity). Imagine being in the middle of an army that is being driven into a more and more compact mass of panicking humanity, knowing that you've lost and are doomed to die, but that death does not arrive for, possibly, the better part of a day! Livy reported of the Romans that, "Some were found with their heads plunged into the earth, which they had excavated; having thus, as it appeared, made pits for themselves, and having suffocated themselves." I'd take one good charge and death by a storm of arrows over that any day.
- germinalphrase 9y ago
  Really puts a point of the phrase "to bury one's head in the sand" - doesn't it?
- Fifer82 9y ago
  Thanks! Another great overview by this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MroGPObEZzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MroGPObEZzk
- jrimbault 9y ago
  I actually thought of the Battle of Cannae during the episode of Game of Thrones Battle of the Bastards.
  - netzone 9y ago
    Sure. I'm sure you think of it during most medieval show that has some sort of warfare, some variation of it is almost always featured, though as far as I know tactics similar to that had been used long before that particular battle.
Someone 9y ago
I think medieval people were hardened quite a bit by what they had to endure outside of war. Almost all of them would have lost brothers and sisters in childhood, infections of the smallest of wounds could cost you a leg or kill you, famine and the plague weren’t things that only happened to strangers far away, etc. As to that button: that’s only true if you are very much the stronger party in a conflict. I think there were quite a few Iraqi soldiers in AC units pressing buttons wondering how soon a missile fired by a Predator drone would hit them.
noobiemcfoob 9y ago
And somehow some people survived multiple conflicts!? It never makes any sense to me... Are these war vetarans somehow better than the others or just lucky? Perhaps both to a degree.

Quarrelsome 9y ago

I think its less of a deal considering that you'd have consumed A LOT of propaganda building you up to that moment. Also warfare probably had good opportunities for social mobility compared to other pursuits.

wscott 9y ago
And lots of liquid propaganda.
- goldenkey 9y ago
  I'm having trouble getting the reference..do you mean some type of drug? Or do you mean the soldiers' salary?
  - ataturk 9y ago
    Pretty much every army had soldiers juiced to the edge of their lives--beer, wine, and rum rations were the norm even up into the 1800s.
  - 0d311 9y ago
    I think they may mean alcohol.
  - IntronExon 9y ago
    I would assume that they’re referring to drinking alcohol.
- cobbzilla 9y ago
  Indeed. The British Royal Navy was handing out rum rations until 1970. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tot_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tot_Day

ourmandave 9y ago

Even with push button ship based missiles someone still has to do recon and assess the destruction to make sure they got the target. Maybe not the guy pushing the button, but someone. Probably the USAF intel analysts that watch war zones through aerial cameras. They are literally 1000s of miles away but still see the full horrors of war. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/24/525413427/for-drone-pilots-warfare-may-be-remote-but-the-trauma-is-real https://www.npr.org/2017/04/24/525413427/for-drone-pilots-wa...

mmjaa 9y ago
Special Forces are still way, way further up the line than you think. Those that are calling in the airstrikes are, typically, within a few hundred meters of the target even still, today. Not every square inch of war ground can be targeted with satellites - boots on the ground are still the goto for tactical intelligence gathering.

beloch 9y ago

Look up the Battle of Cannae, wherein Hannibal successfully encircled a force of approximately 80k Romans and killed approximately 70k of them. This wasn't bowmen vs infantry but, primarily, infantry vs infantry. The battle was effectively won once the encirclement was completed, but killing people in close quarter combat is an agonizingly slow process unless there's a rout. Encircled soldiers can't rout. The slaughter continued until darkness, and only after dark did the battle cease, leaving some survivors (night battles were exceedingly rare in antiquity). Imagine being in the middle of an army that is being driven into a more and more compact mass of panicking humanity, knowing that you've lost and are doomed to die, but that death does not arrive for, possibly, the better part of a day! Livy reported of the Romans that, "Some were found with their heads plunged into the earth, which they had excavated; having thus, as it appeared, made pits for themselves, and having suffocated themselves." I'd take one good charge and death by a storm of arrows over that any day.

germinalphrase 9y ago
Really puts a point of the phrase "to bury one's head in the sand" - doesn't it?
Fifer82 9y ago
Thanks! Another great overview by this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MroGPObEZzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MroGPObEZzk
jrimbault 9y ago
I actually thought of the Battle of Cannae during the episode of Game of Thrones Battle of the Bastards.
- netzone 9y ago
  Sure. I'm sure you think of it during most medieval show that has some sort of warfare, some variation of it is almost always featured, though as far as I know tactics similar to that had been used long before that particular battle.

Someone 9y ago

I think medieval people were hardened quite a bit by what they had to endure outside of war. Almost all of them would have lost brothers and sisters in childhood, infections of the smallest of wounds could cost you a leg or kill you, famine and the plague weren’t things that only happened to strangers far away, etc. As to that button: that’s only true if you are very much the stronger party in a conflict. I think there were quite a few Iraqi soldiers in AC units pressing buttons wondering how soon a missile fired by a Predator drone would hit them.

noobiemcfoob 9y ago

And somehow some people survived multiple conflicts!? It never makes any sense to me... Are these war vetarans somehow better than the others or just lucky? Perhaps both to a degree.