by StoneWall 57 Replies latest social current
Smoke and mirrors and the agendas of old, corrupt, greedy men.
Only, old, corrupt, greedy men who create the need for them.It is a problem of humans wanting to dominate other humans by any means possible.Cog,
Exactly!
See how many of these old men want to go to war if THEY have to lead the charge on the battlefield, if THEY are on the front line.
By the way cog, will you marry me?
JDW
Is this really any different from things that have gone before? This world is just a repetition, generation after generation.
It is disgusting that they cut off fingers and other parts as trophies. However, this sort of thing has gone on forever in the history of wars. In the time of Jacob, people took trophies of body parts also. Perhaps they were ancestral; perhaps they were trophies of war.
What has been brought down to us through scripture is that the teraphim were known as household gods. Were people really superstitious about these body parts of the dead "protecting them"? Or did they serve some other purpose as to status of a household, like military medals that people use today? The midrash gruesomely describes the teraphim as "pickled shrunken heads".
Obviously, these items did have some great significance and importance attached to them.
See how many of these old men want to go to war if THEY have to lead the charge on the battlefield, if THEY are on the front line.
Judge, I have long had a policy I would like to see instituted. If any politician wants to start a war, and wants to send my son off to battle, then he and his sons must lead the infantry charge. If they are not willing to die for their own war and sacrifice their sons, then don't ask me for mine. That would just be the start of the conversation, not necessarily the end.
By the way cog, will you marry me?
LOL. My first JWN proposal (I had one on JWD but it fell through. I think he wasn't sincere.) You think you could handle me and my baggage? I'm not for the faint of heart! Also, how old are you? I'm not into cradle robbing.
Train some teenagers to be expert at killing, mix in drugs and alcohol and disasters will happen. Some of the guys I went to High School with in the 60s who went on to serve in Vietnam came back mental wrecks. One who was in the Air Force Special Unit had to kill young children who were strapped with explosives by the Viet Cong and sent into the Air Base. The Japanese soldiers would castrate an enemy soldier and stuff the genitals in the mouth to scare the beegeezus out the the Americans. My father served in the Pacific War.
Read Maccabees sometime for a hair raising scene of torture.
War is a nasty business.
stonewall,
Are you stupid, or somthin'?
Farkel
War is hell, this is true.
Some times people are driven to be the worse that they can be.
It's a primal environment where the life of others can be viewed as cheap and meaningless.
War is a horrific thing that should never happen and yet, as we know, it is a reality that we have to deal with and surrmount.
The vasy majority of soldiers are professional and good, solid people that would rather be home tucking in their kids and having a beer with their buddies.
There was always a small element that did horrific things in war, I know, I saw it and will never forget it, their side, our side, none are exempt.
Our soldier deserve our support but that support for them must also translate in punishing those that dirty their name by commiting atrocities in the disguise of "war".
How far are we from The Lord Of The Flies
It seems if you want to try and get away with murder, just join the armed forces.
There are more than 2.5 million Americans serving in our armed forces.
I think that you are making an extremely hasty generalization.
If these soldiers did what they are accused of, they will receive a severe sentence.
BTS
You present a balanced picture of things PS Sacramento.
I hate war and violence (one thing I liked about JW's was their neutral stance). I have since become less ant-military though. Because to deny the fact that we live in a world where a small percentage of the population are antisocial psychopaths with murderous agendas (or just greedy bastards who want to dominate others and claim all the world's resources for themselves), is to deny reality. And as long as their are mindless droness to follow them and kill for them.... well you get the picture.
So, unfortunate as this fact is, I can see the need for a military if only for self-defence against predators. However the way we train the military and fail to weed out the psychopaths and sadists is something that can be improved imo. Or does the military and the process of war, actually create psychopaths and sadists? It might be a self-reinforcing feedback loop. In fact, there is strong scientific evidence it is.
The other problem is how many armies are truly used only for self-defense and never initiate the aggression? Standing militaries are a slippery slope that need to constantly have the spotlight shone on them to prevent atrocities. No blindly accepting any institutions as sacred.
