Warrior Population

[Robb]

Poll question: Warrior Population

I'm going to try to ask this question without revealing my own bias, but I doubt I'll be able to do it. :)

Is there an inherent value in having a segment of the population that has actually seen war? The real deal, the stuff you can't un-see, combat horror? Will that always have value?

[morgan2]

1. there is a value after the war is over..but

The question is would it make people less likely or more likely to go to war. I don't think there is a clear answer. I'm sure a lot of it would have to do with how their experience in war was. Obviously it is going to be horrible but its more complex than that. WWII veterans came back proud of what they accomplished while Vietnam veterans came back proud of themselves but many felt it was all a waste. There are two extremes in the reactions I would think from having experienced a war. Many would see how horrible it was and would never want someone else to have to go through it. Others would feel it is something we have to do when the time comes and would be willing to accept it as a necessity.

[Hoosier Democrat]

2. Remember what Robert E Lee Said

"It is a good thing that war is so terrible. Otherwise, we might grow too fond of it." How true is that for today.

It should surprise no one that those who were most strongly against Dumb-ya's Persian Excursion were those who actually saw real combat (Bob Kerrey, Max Cleland, Wes Clark). it was only the Chickenhawks who dodged the draft (OxyRush, Cheney, Robertson, Dornan, Wolfowitz, etc) who got hard-ons just thinking about war.

Of course, let us not forget our favorite Chickenhawk, Flight Suit Boy. Parading around like a little kid playing dress-up when he was AWOL for most of his national guard tenure. BASTARD!

[cprise]

3. I guess that depends

...on whether having experienced an unjust war, they can bring themselves to oppose it.

[Muddleoftheroad]

4. No it doesn't

It matters that you understand the ramifications of military action. It is not like is in the movies. It is bloody and horrifying. People die, often not just those you intend to kill.

No, I don't believe war to be always wrong. But it is a huge step and should never be taken lightly.

[aneerkoinos]

5. No

Sweden and Switzerland, e.g., haven't been in war for hundreds of years and have no "warrior population". Yet they seem to be doing allright.

[DebJ]

6. Born in 1955. Impact of demonstrations can't be underrated either.

Demonstrations, going on for years, including violence, constantly in the news, made you feel you HAD to think about it, HAD to be pro or con. At my ex husbands 10 yr high school reunion, the entire back of the room was filled with men in wheel chairs from Viet Nam. Then there was a rather long list of those who had died in 10 years, all but one or two due to Viet Nam. His graduating class had about 650 people. More than one in 20 were dead or disabled from the war. My ex husband, who never seemed to care for anyone or anything but himself (note the 'ex', ha!), was extremely shook up. I had already been hit to the core by the age of 14. There is a book called "Winners and Losers", about the lives of men who came home from Nam. You can not read that book and support war except in absolutely necessary last resort self-defense.

[PATRICK]

7. pluses and minuses

Perhaps it might change people too naive and on the borderline of considering war as a normal option. On the other hand many people can't change, too many become numb and brutalized and sucked into the various evils, even just by witnessing events. It forever darkens one's hopes and world view when in the balance(which is how the warmongers manipulate it)it is just a gigantic stupidity and collective failure. The actual bloodshed and soldier experience often drowns out the ability to see war for what it totally is and prevent future ones. TV is a remote, deceptive substitute with its on/off button and editing.

After WWI, rich jerk officers were alarmed that war educated soldiers would come steaming home determined on social shakeup and democratic reform. So they made the American legion to sidetrack the emotions and the anger into other directions, instead turning them into a pro-war, pro establishment force. Others simply became alienated, or worse, from the society back home whom the horrors of war affected so indirectly that little sound good came of their own reactions. American isolationism too became a GOP tool that both caused WWII and nearly doomed the US and the free world to fall into corporate militaristic slavery. Everyone learns, but most miss the point and no application has been perfect because of the horrors of war. The cycle is endlessly self-repeating. Everyone gets sucked in.

To leave the example a moment. The great mystic Teresa of Avila preferred an intelligent confessor to a holy priest of repute because their judgment was sound and did more good while the other did well-intentioned harm. Compassion and intelligence surpasses actual experience though it is also invaluable and authentic to have both. Do we need to see a cancer victim to change our lives? Many do, but for the thoughtful it is not a necessity. In fact, the trauma may simply pass on thought blocking permanent damage that blocks educational value. Eventually some have gone after the tobacco company villains, but people still smoke.

What are you going to do about the careless people who need to have their face rubbed in it- if that would do any good? What about the veterans whose experience you have not shared? It's a common human problem far beyond the issue of war itself and war despite its incredible horror, just one sad lesson unlearned among many.

[Cheesehead]

8. I got a call from a WWII vet in response to my LTTE on the war

He is 79 years old and has been vehemently anti-war since his service in the Air Corps in WWII. He told me about viewing the destruction in Europe; about losing friends, buddies and family members in combat; about how WWII affected him. The memories are very vivid for him nearly 60 years later. War is something that you don't forget, even when it can be justified.