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We go to war with our ideals.
We come home with our ideals.
War is simply an exercise in survival. Anything more is civilized. A few things on this:
1. Applying civility to war.
2. The way you fight is determined by law.
3. If you fight with honor, you will be honored.
4. A quote (from whom I no longer recall): "Our profession is war, our product is peace."
5. After the war, we'll be able to have our lives back again.
1A. 'Civility', in this case applies to rules we dream up during peacetime, not during war, and usually do not assist in the survival of you or your team.
2A. No, sorry - the way you fight is determined by your morals, which are personal to you. Sometimes you don't even know what they are until you make eye contact with your enemy.
3A. No, you will be forgotten a lot sooner by those who would be moved most to pay you their respect than if you do something dirty and scandalous, and be remembered by the sneering, pig's-blood spilling activists longer than they will even remember one another. Hence the words, "Lest We Forget." Even deep within the information age, no legacy will last for eternity. What is important in life, isn't the type of legacy we leave (because history is written by the victor and taught by their children using Superteaching), but rather what we can do now to most greatly impact those around us, and inspire them to do the same.
4A. Agreed. To add to this, peace is about acceptance and people. Tolerance is grounds for war.
5A. Those of us lucky or unlucky to still have lives to come back to, or even the capacity to enjoy those lives and the company of those who love and hate them most.
War, when romanticized by historians, governments, writers and even veterans, become works of perceptual fiction, which is exactly where it belongs. What you see and hear about the actions of survivors of the battle field, is what you see and what you hear. You will perceive what you see and hear using your own wealth of experience and bias to derive your opinion and plan of action. You were not in that survivor's head at the time that they were surviving.
DISCLAIMER: These are my personal views and opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the official or unofficial opinions of certain governments, armies, specific people, unspecified people, citizens, legal aliens, illegal aliens, terrorists, friends, family, personal enemies, professional enemies, or the University of Delaware.
Oh crap. It's Easter. If you celebrate today as a holiday, Happy Easter. If you don't, Happy Easter. Don't read this today, for it is a holiday. Read it tomorrow. It should do wonders for your mood on a Monday morning.
We come home with our ideals.
War is simply an exercise in survival. Anything more is civilized. A few things on this:
1. Applying civility to war.
2. The way you fight is determined by law.
3. If you fight with honor, you will be honored.
4. A quote (from whom I no longer recall): "Our profession is war, our product is peace."
5. After the war, we'll be able to have our lives back again.
1A. 'Civility', in this case applies to rules we dream up during peacetime, not during war, and usually do not assist in the survival of you or your team.
2A. No, sorry - the way you fight is determined by your morals, which are personal to you. Sometimes you don't even know what they are until you make eye contact with your enemy.
3A. No, you will be forgotten a lot sooner by those who would be moved most to pay you their respect than if you do something dirty and scandalous, and be remembered by the sneering, pig's-blood spilling activists longer than they will even remember one another. Hence the words, "Lest We Forget." Even deep within the information age, no legacy will last for eternity. What is important in life, isn't the type of legacy we leave (because history is written by the victor and taught by their children using Superteaching), but rather what we can do now to most greatly impact those around us, and inspire them to do the same.
4A. Agreed. To add to this, peace is about acceptance and people. Tolerance is grounds for war.
5A. Those of us lucky or unlucky to still have lives to come back to, or even the capacity to enjoy those lives and the company of those who love and hate them most.
War, when romanticized by historians, governments, writers and even veterans, become works of perceptual fiction, which is exactly where it belongs. What you see and hear about the actions of survivors of the battle field, is what you see and what you hear. You will perceive what you see and hear using your own wealth of experience and bias to derive your opinion and plan of action. You were not in that survivor's head at the time that they were surviving.
DISCLAIMER: These are my personal views and opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the official or unofficial opinions of certain governments, armies, specific people, unspecified people, citizens, legal aliens, illegal aliens, terrorists, friends, family, personal enemies, professional enemies, or the University of Delaware.
Oh crap. It's Easter. If you celebrate today as a holiday, Happy Easter. If you don't, Happy Easter. Don't read this today, for it is a holiday. Read it tomorrow. It should do wonders for your mood on a Monday morning.
