4 ms·

"There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybod

"There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander." -- Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H <https://www.quotes.net/mquote/790330 https://www.quotes.net/mquote/790330> War is the job you can't quit.

rightbyte 3y ago
That you can't legally quit. There are plenty of ways to quit. E.g. deserting, self-wounding. You also got different forms of mutiny and "fragging" officers (not really quiting, but refusing to do the job).
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  As the M*A*S*H quote notes, war doesn't only involve combatants, but noncombatants, civilians, neutral parties, children, and future generations. For the last, consider unexploded WWII ordnance routinely uncovered in Germany and the UK (an example of the latter only this week); mines in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, among many other theatres; Agent Orange and other chemicals utilised in various locations (including a sunken trove of mustard gas munitions aboard a US Liberty ship, the John Harvey, lost at Bari, Italy, during WWII); depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan, amongst others; and the political disruptions of national borders drawn either ignorant of or to deliberately exploit local rivalries across the Middle East (Sykes-Picot), Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Even barring that, and allowing that there are long-term employment conditions (shipping, remote development, expeditions) which might be difficult to quit on a moment's notice, military service at the least has legal proscriptions on arbitrary quitting not found in civilian service.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    Oh ye. In the broader sense. I took it to litteraly about "quiting a job". Like, you can't refuse to be bombed etc.
    - dredmorbius 3y ago
      Bingo.

rightbyte 3y ago

That you can't legally quit. There are plenty of ways to quit. E.g. deserting, self-wounding. You also got different forms of mutiny and "fragging" officers (not really quiting, but refusing to do the job).

dredmorbius 3y ago
As the M*A*S*H quote notes, war doesn't only involve combatants, but noncombatants, civilians, neutral parties, children, and future generations. For the last, consider unexploded WWII ordnance routinely uncovered in Germany and the UK (an example of the latter only this week); mines in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, among many other theatres; Agent Orange and other chemicals utilised in various locations (including a sunken trove of mustard gas munitions aboard a US Liberty ship, the John Harvey, lost at Bari, Italy, during WWII); depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan, amongst others; and the political disruptions of national borders drawn either ignorant of or to deliberately exploit local rivalries across the Middle East (Sykes-Picot), Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Even barring that, and allowing that there are long-term employment conditions (shipping, remote development, expeditions) which might be difficult to quit on a moment's notice, military service at the least has legal proscriptions on arbitrary quitting not found in civilian service.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  Oh ye. In the broader sense. I took it to litteraly about "quiting a job". Like, you can't refuse to be bombed etc.
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    Bingo.