Thread: With respect to servicemen/women is this too much or not enough?

Originally Posted by gugi

if they want to show the horror of war they should just find a family that is on board with that.

I agree....

Originally Posted by gugi

...if they want to show the horror of war they should just find a family that is on board with that.

In my estimation, dead soldiers are not in any way "horrors of war". When we join the military we expect to be killed in a war. The true horrors of war are the "collateral damages", civilian tragedies whether it is the loss of innocent lives (especially children) or the loss of freedoms, homes, food or security. The systematic raping of women in the Congo ranks pretty much up there on my list of horrors. A dead soldier may be a horrible thing but it is not a "horror of war". It is expected.

Originally Posted by icedog

In my estimation, dead soldiers are not in any way "horrors of war". When we join the military we expect to be killed in a war. The true horrors of war are the "collateral damages", civilian tragedies whether it is the loss of innocent lives (especially children) or the loss of freedoms, homes, food or security. The systematic raping of women in the Congo ranks pretty much up there on my list of horrors. A dead soldier may be a horrible thing but it is not a "horror of war". It is expected.

Men and Women who join do not "Expect" to be KIA, they accept the fact that they may have to pay the ultimate price for their country, but it is never expected, the deaths of soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen, are tragedies, they often are killed in the most horrific ways imaginable, they are mourned and honored extensively, some of their brother and sister soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen live with nightmares for the rest of their lives, reliving the events of these terrible deaths every day.

I have an active duty KIA detail coming in tomorrow morning, I will be up in the morning on saturday, in full dress ceremonial blues, shoes, buttons and medals shined to a glisten, along with fellow ceremonial guardsmen, high ranking officers, and a good portion of my base, while we escort and pay honors as his body is carried from a military aircraft to a hearse, his family will be present as well, this sort of ceremony is held at every checkpoint and pitstop along his way home, I would pity the soul who stood out there and told his mother that his death was not a tragedy, it was expected. "Hey he joined the military lady, deal with it." Is not on the script tomorrow.

If you served honorable in the military, we will be there at your funeral presenting a flag to your loved ones.

Death of a soldier is a tragedy of course, but by joining the forces every person should be aware that changes to get killed or wounded are much more higher than by not joining at all. Of course recruiting ads do not mention this possibility much.

Even worse tragedies are really those casual damages, innocent victims, whose lives will get ruined for life, sometimes for generations, long after the military crisis has ended.
I might be wrong in this, but i think that the more the modern military technology developes, the more there will be collateral damages.

Being in an active service myself i couldn't care less if someone wants to take pictures of me if something bad happens some day. If it helps to show people the one part of the crisis, then it is propably good. I've talked with my family about this topic and they agree.
What i do not accept is publishing shocking and biased (on the way or the other) pictures in the yellow media whose only purpose is to make money.

Originally Posted by Roshambo

Men and Women who join do not "Expect" to be KIA, they accept the fact that they may have to pay the ultimate price for their country, but it is never expected, the deaths of soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen, are tragedies, they often are killed in the most horrific ways imaginable, they are mourned and honored extensively, some of their brother and sister soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen live with nightmares for the rest of their lives, reliving the events of these terrible deaths every day.

Roshambo,

I hear what you are saying and I can't argue with your point. I agree with you. The loss of a soldier is certainly a tragedy. I am saying that dead soldiers are not to be counted amongst "the horrors of war". That is war. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. You can't make a war without killing soldiers. If you don't agree or catch my drift, please understand that I served in a different situation at a different time. I was in during the Cold War. While there was no combat (other than barfights) every person in any branch knew if the very tense nuclear situation was to escalate to actual hostile action, we were all going to die. As a missile technician on a ballistic missile submarine I knew as did all my shipmates that we might very well be the last people left alive on the planet. We made plans for that eventuality. We were also aware that we always had a Soviet fast attack submarine behind us and if we were to receive war orders, we were not to attempt any act of self preservation that would delay the launch of a single missile. We were to keep launching missiles, even as we sunk to our deaths. In short, during the Cold War, we expected to die if the war heated up.

Brad

Indeed,

Those were difficult times, we may likely be there again some day.