It's easier for the government to conduct wars after they have been cleaned up for public consumption. They can go on for years or decades longer this way.
My friend Warren has a slightly different angle and wrote the following letter to Laura King, the Afghanistan beat writer for the Los Angeles Times:
Subject: la times article.....July 25...
Hi Laura I always have in mind the safety of reporters such as you who do so such a fine job under what must be dangerous and difficult circumstances......a few thoughts the "poisoning "of soldiers and then shooting them by a fellow soldier appears to be another sad reminder of the cesspool of a corrupt government that the US is literally defending against it's own population.....this week in the Sunday LA times military obit 19 dead and who knows how many wounded....with the exception of usingThe Medal of Honor awarding as a crass self serving public relations "gimmick" President Obama has not visited military hospitals or continually voiced appreciation ....at the very least to the very same military persons .....I want to make another point that I think is the epitome of the cynicism and carefully omitted "horrors" endured by service members......I have not seen any casualties suffered by female soldiers..... this is not misogyny but the fear of a head line that might read....."mother of 3 killed by IUD".......i realize the implications of this statement but giving the proven abilities of woman soldiers in combat I can come up with no other conclusion.....??.....thank you again for your analysis and dedication.....Warren bishop...this observation may not be categorical but I would say....."the exceptions may well prove the rule .....
He in turn received this response:
Hi, sir. Well, one issue with female soldiers who are killed and wounded is that the military here doesn't disclose any ID-type information at the time - that's done a few days after the fact by the Pentagon, and by their home bases. Obviously the numbers are much smaller than of male service members, but deaths and injuries of female soldiers ARE occurring, of course. Maybe I will ask our Pentagon reporter about teaming up on this subject - can't really be reported solely from here unless one happens to be on the scene when such a casualty occurs.
Thanks as always for your observations -
Best,
Laura
Now Warren (who meant IED, not IUD) brings up an interesting point. Women are already in combat but we never see it. Would the sight of wounded or dead women soldiers be tolerable to the American public? Is it intentionally played down by the Pentagon? Is it a good idea to sanitize a conflict or do you prefer seeing the real horrors of conflict on your television screen. Call me a romantic but I like the vérité of the old days.
6 comments:
Want to be creeped out a little? Your name is in today's Sunday LA Times obituaries. I've never seen my name in the obits, except my old man's. But I suppose your name is shared by more people than mine.
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The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. But it is probably inevitable in the long run.
its that very verite of the old days that shut down the news coverage in war zones, especially after Uncle Walt - Cronkite, not Disney, opined after Tet that the war didn't appear to be "winnable". America although on one hand roots for the underdog, likes to win and sees themselves as winners.Body counts, blood, and civilian casualties, now euphemised as "collateral damage", are generally accepted as regrettable, and the families are compensated monetarially and are lauded as significantly reduced due to our "surgical strikes'. Yes, Blue Heron, the sanitization of war has been going on as our war machine has been going on as war is our biggest business. Its our chief export and our greatest manufacturing employer. Parts needed to make the instruments of war are distributed over all fifty states to muffle any resistance among the elected assemblies as any protest to new bombers and bombs,etc. would mean great losses of jobs to their constituencies. And with the new weapons technol-
ogies and drone strike capabilities, war has become increasingly like playing a video game. Especially when the game simulators are akin to the simulators
used for police and military training. Thereby increasing the kill rario in stateside shootings as first cited with the Colombine incident. Kids are wittingly or unwittingly receiving marksmanship skills and engaging in mock military scenarios as a form of entertainment. These games now are protected by law to continue to be sold. Historically, in world war
1, soldiers would routinely fire over soldiers heads in combat and had a kill ratio of 25 percent. Efforts were made to override this tendency and paper targets were replaced with human shaped silouettes
and the kill ratio went up to seventy five percent. spring loaded tartgets were devised and during the Vietnam war the kill ratio went up to ninety percent.
Much of our life in modern society is sanitized. We don't personally dispose of our trash, we don't kill and dress the meat we eat, and we don't prepare and bury our loved one's body when they die. Much of what is natural and human is serviced by others and that is probably necessary now that we're technological and not tribal. But when we were tribal, our wars were fought for things more tangible, at least.
- Whomever
Early on in the Iraq conflict they found that they were having a problem with young soldiers pulling the trigger when they got to the actual battlefield. I remember reading that they had a control group start killing in a simulated video game environment. After enough training, they had a huge increase in their willingness to pull the trigger and became desensitized to the infliction of pain and death. Reflexive motor skills take over and you don't have to deal with the emotional repercussions until you come stateside and suddenly have problems sleeping at night or maybe with uncontrollably crying. Nice comment, thank you. Whomever.
your blog never fails to stir my synapses and your reply reminded me that now they are also using video simulations to help soldiers recovering from what they used to call "shell shock", then "battle fatigue' and now "post traumatic stress disorder". So now technology is both in a sense cancer and cure. I didn't know that they were still struggling to get soldiers to pull the trigger. it leaves me with a little sense of hope, in a way. Thanks again, Blue Heron.
....by the way, I hear those IUD"s can be pretty lethal;too.
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