Barbarity

Been pondering this post for a while, still not exactly sure what I will achieve by writing it, other than to tell others what I observe.  So here goes.

Since the beginning of man, violence has been something that we have proven time and time again we are very good at.  However all this violence has a cost.  When we expose our young men and women to the conditioning for war, we eat away at their ideas of what is right and wrong.

Let me explain what I mean.  The idea of training someone for war is to train them to kill someone else.  In normal circumstances that would be seen as outside the normal for most human beings.  Yes I know there is more to military training than that, but at its core its kill or be killed.

I was reminded this evening after watch the documentary war in the pacific, of how the barbarity of war blurred the lines of what is barbaric and what is not.  They made the comment that people were not in anguish about dropping the bomb.  There had been far more destructive attacks on Japan including the fire bombing of Tokyo.

By that stage in the war it had become acceptable to attack civilians.  Most if not all nations had subscribed to the view that civilians were not acceptable targets prior to the war.  So how did we come so far.  Barbarity is the answer.  The unprovoked attack on pearl harbor, the propaganda machine on both sides portraying each other as less than human, and the Japanese suicide attacks had hardened allied forces to seeing their enemy as less than human.

More telling is the quote from General Curtis Lemay,

 "Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier."

I think that statement in a nutshell shows how barbarity changes the rules of engagement.  I understand however that he was looking at saving Allied lives and the pressures to bring the war to end would have been immense.  


In summary I think anyone is capable of Barbarity given the right circumstances.  War and the act of killing others on mass changes the rules.  Your enemy has to be seen as less than human, otherwise the act of war in itself would be to hard to handle.  Barbarity doesn't just exist in war, it exists on our dark streets day after day as our young gun each other down in cold blood.

Are films, games  the media responsible, I don't think so.  I think it is possible to barbarize someone without violence.  Take away the possibility to have a job make enough money to live, take away someones hope and in a way you break them.  In doing so they see everyone else as the enemy and ultimately a potential victim.

I haven't added any pictures to this post, I just want it to stand as what it is, observations of the human condition.  I in no way take away from the professionalism of our armed forces and the near impossible task that we have asked them to do.  Every one of them are hero's in their own way.  I also did not intend to take away from the achievements of General Lemay, and what he went on to do after WWII offering the ultimate deterrent of M.A.D. with his Bomber command.

While we have borders we will always need fighting men and women to protect them.  In the end it is the human condition.  I pray on this eve of Christmas that our men and women around the world can come home to their families soon, and that in future generations we don't have to ask our children to fight on foreign shores.

For those away from their families on duty around the world, thank you.