War should never be sanitized

[Az]

War is horrible. The only time it should be even considered is when it is absolutely the last possible option available. The people in who's name war is waged should be aware of the effects of their armed forces in action. Hiding the reality of war from the people makes waging the next war all the more easy and divorces us from the horrendous nature of it.

We must balance the horrible cost of such actions with the good it may bring. If the balance cannot be justified then the war cannot be justified. By controling the view of the war George and company are trying to create a stage in which they can roll over any nation they choose using an increasinly lower criteria for action.

War is not clean. It should not be dressed up and made to be pretty. We should never forget the destruction it brings to people.

[the Kelly Gang]

1. correct. I talk to so many people who think it's some sort of game.

[guitar man]

2. Correct

Your post brings to mind an old Star Trek episode where they went to a planet where war was waged with computers and the "casualties" were rounded up and marched into disintegration chambers,keeping everything all neat and tidy. If memory serves, the two sides in the war had been at it for over 500 years.

Are we headed for a similar fate? I hope to God not.

[MSgt213]

3. Correct when you send your young men and women off to fight you should

know all it entails. They and the enemy is going through hell and we can't watch a few pictures.

[nonconformist]

4. ITA. n/t

[LeftofU]

5. We should have unsanitized....

executions. Make them public and watch them go away.

[FDRrocks]

6. It wasn't war that was sanitized

It is the humanity that was never sanitized, in my opinion.

[Cleita]

7. In WWII, our families listened to the radio.

The reports were journalistic and as accurate as they could do it with the technology they had available. We got newsreels in the movie theaters months later. Apparently the footage were silents so sound was added in a studio including bang, bang things.

But, I really believe the foreign correspondents tried to bring fair and balanced reports to us. In this instant information age, we are getting less than we should in accurate reporting considering how much easier it is to do so.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

8. great points

"Hiding the reality of war from the people makes waging the next war all the more easy and divorces us from the horrendous nature of it"

That's George's point exactly.

You make excellent points. I would add that it's a funny thing to say that the nation is not allowed to view the caskets of our armed forces, when how many times were we force-fed the images of our towers collapsing? Who was arguing then that we should not bear witness to the tremendous loss of life?

[camero]

9. War is mass murder

Noone ever comes clean from it.

[Egalitarian]

10. Kick

Just say no to killing for your government!

[Occulus]

11. In Arthur C. Clarke's

Rama Revealed, he and co-author Gentry Lee write of a species called 'octospiders.'

The octos are a very interesting species. First, they communicate using colored strips that flow around their heads, obviously using an advanced form of bioluminescence that, incidentally, extends into the ultraviolet.

They are also insanely advanced biological engineers, to the point that they engineer various 'morphs' of their own species- morphs so large they can store food for the entire colony down to those so small they can actually communicate with bacteria. The octos also engineer perfect biological symbiosis between species to benefit their own colony (one memorable sequence involves a biological power plant, in which a 'starfish' that creates an electrical charge like an electric eel must press against a mesh and dispose of its charge in order to feed).

However, they know their technology is so advanced that they could easily cause their own destruction; also, they understand that those who wage war in any capacity are forever changer for the worse by the sure knowledge that their actions, whether direct or not, resulted in the deaths of intelligent, thinking beings.

Thus, all octos involved in war efforts in any capacity are terminated after the war.

No, I'm not advocating this. But what should we do?