I agree with you about propaganda. One of the countless things that upsets me about war is the dehumanization of the "enemy" and the longterm effects that has on people. It goes hand-in-hand with war, to convince yourself that the other side is less than human, since most people have a hard-wired taboo against killing others. Part of the romanticization of war focuses only on the situations in which people are fighting for self-defense or their buddies or their country, but that's not all there is to it, is there? I had an uncle who was vilely prejudiced against Asians all the rest of his life because he was conditioned to feel that way in Vietnam. He hadn't been before. On some level he knew it was wrong but he couldn't shake it.
Many Iraqis now see their fight as defending their homeland against invaders (as many Vietnamese did). Who's to call them "wrong," considering what they've experienced?
No politician is going to go on record saying that they think American lives are worth more than Iraqi lives because it would be such a horrible sound bite, but isn't the mentality underlying all the bombing, the "collateral damage," the refusal to count Iraqi civilian casualties or even mention them in the news? Isn't that always the unspoken dirty truth of war?
I disagree that it's true. Profoundly. Deeply. Absolutely. And while it's possible to argue over whether frozen embryos or three-week-old fetuses are "human life" (personality, I do not believe they are, but certainly reasonable people can disagree), there is NO arguing whether the Iraqi men, women, and children killed by US bombing are. That to me is as unquestionably, simply murder as killing a store clerk during a robbery. The only difference is that some people believe for some reason that the "robbery" is somehow "justified."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-10 03:46 pm (UTC)Many Iraqis now see their fight as defending their homeland against invaders (as many Vietnamese did). Who's to call them "wrong," considering what they've experienced?
No politician is going to go on record saying that they think American lives are worth more than Iraqi lives because it would be such a horrible sound bite, but isn't the mentality underlying all the bombing, the "collateral damage," the refusal to count Iraqi civilian casualties or even mention them in the news? Isn't that always the unspoken dirty truth of war?
I disagree that it's true. Profoundly. Deeply. Absolutely. And while it's possible to argue over whether frozen embryos or three-week-old fetuses are "human life" (personality, I do not believe they are, but certainly reasonable people can disagree), there is NO arguing whether the Iraqi men, women, and children killed by US bombing are. That to me is as unquestionably, simply murder as killing a store clerk during a robbery. The only difference is that some people believe for some reason that the "robbery" is somehow "justified."