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A Truth of Mine...
Apr. 3rd, 2003 10:43 pmI'm watching war news and reading war blogs and it's got me thinking. Not surprising really.
I've come to several conclusions about truths that I hold. Truths about life, about war, about things I hold dear and important.
But I've come to see one thing are paramount: Any life lost is a tragedy.
I read the stories of lost civilians, of soldiers tortured and dead. But I don't click on the links when I know the pictures are graphic and gut-wrenchingly obvious. I don't have too. I know what death looks like. I have seen death in many forms. And I've seen it personally. Death can be cruel, graphic and ugly when you see it.
But the tragedy of death isn't in the violence that may accompany it. It's not in the grotesque and gruesomeness of mangled bodies. Hell, in today's world of video games and "accurate" special effects, that's entertainment.
No, the tragedy in death is in the loss. And it doesn't matter if that loss is a child or a mother or a soldier (or all three).
The news loudly promotes the story of the death of 15 civilians but casually mentions the 400 Iraqi soldiers killed in battle. Each of those soldiers had dreams and hopes and loves and potential just as did those civilians. The world is as diminished by their loss as by any other.
And I think of the American soldiers who are fighting. So many of them are just kids. There is a tragedy in their sacrifice -- not only in the sacrifice of dying but in the sacrifice of killing.
A Vietnam vet once said that he sat on one side of a river and shot everyone that he could see on the other side. Just one after another. He killed them like deer, he said, get them in the scope and squeeze the trigger. He was clearly haunted by the memory. My father-in-law doesn't like hunting. He says he saw enough death in Vietnam.
The news shows the soldiers as just people -- not psychopathic murders, not misguided idealists, not uncaring robots. Just people trying to do something horrid, impossible, and unforgiving.
The discussion still pops up: What pictures should be shown? How graphic should it be? How horribly sickening? What's the best way to really show the dreadful reality of death?
I say you can't. It's can't be shown. It can only be felt. For those who understand the complete and utter loss in death, pictures aren't necessary. And for those who don't, all the pictures in the world won't help.
I've come to several conclusions about truths that I hold. Truths about life, about war, about things I hold dear and important.
But I've come to see one thing are paramount: Any life lost is a tragedy.
I read the stories of lost civilians, of soldiers tortured and dead. But I don't click on the links when I know the pictures are graphic and gut-wrenchingly obvious. I don't have too. I know what death looks like. I have seen death in many forms. And I've seen it personally. Death can be cruel, graphic and ugly when you see it.
But the tragedy of death isn't in the violence that may accompany it. It's not in the grotesque and gruesomeness of mangled bodies. Hell, in today's world of video games and "accurate" special effects, that's entertainment.
No, the tragedy in death is in the loss. And it doesn't matter if that loss is a child or a mother or a soldier (or all three).
The news loudly promotes the story of the death of 15 civilians but casually mentions the 400 Iraqi soldiers killed in battle. Each of those soldiers had dreams and hopes and loves and potential just as did those civilians. The world is as diminished by their loss as by any other.
And I think of the American soldiers who are fighting. So many of them are just kids. There is a tragedy in their sacrifice -- not only in the sacrifice of dying but in the sacrifice of killing.
A Vietnam vet once said that he sat on one side of a river and shot everyone that he could see on the other side. Just one after another. He killed them like deer, he said, get them in the scope and squeeze the trigger. He was clearly haunted by the memory. My father-in-law doesn't like hunting. He says he saw enough death in Vietnam.
The news shows the soldiers as just people -- not psychopathic murders, not misguided idealists, not uncaring robots. Just people trying to do something horrid, impossible, and unforgiving.
The discussion still pops up: What pictures should be shown? How graphic should it be? How horribly sickening? What's the best way to really show the dreadful reality of death?
I say you can't. It's can't be shown. It can only be felt. For those who understand the complete and utter loss in death, pictures aren't necessary. And for those who don't, all the pictures in the world won't help.
