vovat | Somebody's been brainwashing our fighting boys (Reply)

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