Taking Lives with a Smoking Pen

[vovat]

Well, it's Veterans' Day again today. Not that I ever do anything for it, but hey, it's important to honor veterans. They did a dangerous job that the rest of us don't want to do, after all. Sure, you hear the stories about bad apples like the torturers at Abu Ghraib, but I'm willing to accept that they're in the minority. And could behavior like that possibly be blamed on the methods employed by the military? When you're teaching soldiers to disobey one of the most basic customs of polite society (i.e., don't kill people), is it any wonder that they might disobey others as well? Maybe I'm wrong, but it's not like dirty tactics are anything new in war. Just look at the early books of the Bible, for instance. Under the supposed command of Yahweh, the early Israelites slaughtered entire populations and burned their towns, sometimes saving the virgin women to rape. In general, war strikes me as very primitive, and the idea of removing soldiers' individuality and turning them into killing machines is disturbing. But if an enemy won't react to anything else, what do you do? I won't give up hope that there's a more peaceful alternative, but damned if I know what it would be. I seriously doubt I could ever be an effective fighter, and I sincerely hope I'll never get the chance to find out. Fortunately, I grew up in an era with no draft, although that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be one in the future. I don't think anyone over thirty was drafted in Vietnam, but they were earlier in the century. Really, why would a country want to involve so many people in a war when they don't even believe in the cause? It doesn't exactly ensure the best troops, does it? But if there's a draft and you manage to get out of it, does that just mean some other unlucky person will end up going in your place? That's one reason I sort of like the idea of requiring everyone to become involved in SOME sort of national service, but not necessarily military. That way, even if you didn't go abroad and shoot somebody, you can still say you've served your country. Or is there something I'm missing here?

On a more pleasant note, today is also the fifty-sixth birthday of Andy Partridge, formerly of XTC. Happy birthday, Andy! While I put about as much stock in astrology as I do in the position of my feet on the sidewalk having the potential to give my mom spinal cord injury, I do think it's kind of cool that Andy and I are apparently both the same Occidental AND Oriental zodiacal signs. Scorpio Snakes, represent! If our venom doesn't get you, our pincers will!