Somebody's been brainwashing our fighting boys

[vovat]

I remember learning about Sir Francis Drake's defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the textbook's mention that Drake's tactic of using fire was against the rules of "polite warfare." My reaction to this was, "Wait, it's WARFARE. When is it EVER polite?" And I still can't help having the idea that attempts to regulate an activity that involves killing a bunch of people is a futile attempt to create a tiny amount of order out of total chaos. I mean, sure, I'm opposed to torture and in favor of prosecution for war crimes, and I get that there's a question of magnitude at work. It's just that, in a truly civilized society, wouldn't ANY killing that couldn't be justified by a much better reason than "they're the enemy" be a war crime? It amazes me how our military system is supposed to turn people into ruthless killing machines, and then expect them to return to their normal lives in which killing even one person is one of the most horrible crimes imaginable (and then get back-door drafted later on, but that's another subject entirely). I'm glad some people are willing to do that kind of thing, though, because I know I couldn't handle it.

This post has been brought to you by the Society for Trite Ideas, stating what's been stated a million times before since 1588.

EDIT: By the way, this is a few days late, but happy birthday to leolapyre!

Comments

[travspence.livejournal.com]

...turn people into ruthless killing machines, and then expect them to return to their normal lives in which killing even one person is one of the most horrible crimes imaginable...

Part of the kill-bot training is teaching soldiers that the people they are killing aren't people. The enemy is always less than human.

Not that that helps all soldiers return to civilian life...

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

One of the parenting blogs I read was dealing with this issue yesterday- how messed up all the soldiers coming home right now are:

http://www.askmoxie.org/2008/04/qa-husband-with.html

The original poster asked how to help her kids deal with her husband's scary PTSD, (much of which was triggered by actions for which he feels incredibly guilty about). There were a *ton* of commenters who were going through similar situations or who had gone through similar situations growing up (with fathers returning from Vietnam). So it seems like our military system does a pretty good job helping people learn to do their job, but a pretty atrocious job re-acclimating them to civilian life.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I think "polite warfare" was the idea that you sent out mission information and declarations of battle while eating your morning tea. As if something as huge and world-changing as war could be decided between salting your hard-boiled egg and reading the dailies. Don't forget that most warfare is decided in interdepartmental memos. Forts and battles and so on are just modern versions of the gladiators in the colosseum, sadly.

The term makes just as much sense as the "total war" of General Sherman.