I feel strangely detached from it, despite hearing about little else in the news. Almost all of my references to war are auditory (I listen to radio much more than I watch tv) so I hear words, and words, and words, that develop and morph into cliches and background noise. This, sharply punctuated by the brief, jarring TV appearances of coffins upon coffins draped in Union Jacks being paraded through the streets in an attempt to make it all seem terribly meaningful and worthwhile.
All I know, all I experience of war, is the surreal exchange of rhetoric, argument, rhetoric for coffins, coffins, coffins. I know that there must be more to it than that, so it makes me feel like a child in a harsh adult world I don't understand, seeing and hearing things that upset me and having to hope that the adults know what they're doing.
And it's specially interesting to hear things like that, because in the US, the Bush administration tried to actively shelter the public from the War, they wouldn't allow coffins or funerals to be broadcast, photographed etc...
Oh yes, we see all that here. The bodies are always flown to one particular small military airport, RAF Lyneham, and a procession always takes place through one particular small nearby town on the way to the local hospital to see the coroner. The people of Wootton Bassett continually turn out to pay their respects to one after another, over and over again. The town's high street is closed again and again and again as the scene is repeated. Just two days ago, we lost our hundredth soldier in Afghanistan - video further down this page.
I find, especially with a pretty faceless war such as we are in now, and one that has gone on for so long, that I simply get tired of hearing about it. It's gotten to the point where, when I hear of another massive bombing that's killed umpteen dozens of people, that I simply don't connect or care. The closest that I've come to giving a damn is when the son of a friend of mine joined the Marines. I don't even know her son, but it made the war far more immediate to me because of my worry for her and her family.
Now, when I speak to a friend of mine who piloted a landing craft at Normandy for D-Day, or when I spoke to my dad or uncles about their service in WWII, it is and was a very different relationship to war. My father in particular, and Tony, my friend who was at Omaha Beach, their war was real and immediate. And they were quite candid in their descriptions of what it was like. I honestly don't know how they managed to survive as sane humans who could go on with their lives.
I think it makes a huge difference whether you are defending your own country or attacking another.
When someone else wants to take over your land and affect your way of life, then people tend to be much more passionate about war, and are able to relate to it and the causes behind it.
Obviously another factor is also time, living through a war (whether you participated in it or not) tends to make it much more 'real' than a war that happened years before your birth.
It's completely abstract. I can't even get upset about it, because it has about the same personal relevance to my life as, oh, economic issues in Brazil or something. I skip over the headlines in the newspapers because it just doesn't hold my interest. I don't relate to it at all, because it has no applicability to my life or the life of people that matter to me on a visceral level
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All I know, all I experience of war, is the surreal exchange of rhetoric, argument, rhetoric for coffins, coffins, coffins. I know that there must be more to it than that, so it makes me feel like a child in a harsh adult world I don't understand, seeing and hearing things that upset me and having to hope that the adults know what they're doing.
I hope that helps!
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And it's specially interesting to hear things like that, because in the US, the Bush administration tried to actively shelter the public from the War, they wouldn't allow coffins or funerals to be broadcast, photographed etc...
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Now, when I speak to a friend of mine who piloted a landing craft at Normandy for D-Day, or when I spoke to my dad or uncles about their service in WWII, it is and was a very different relationship to war. My father in particular, and Tony, my friend who was at Omaha Beach, their war was real and immediate. And they were quite candid in their descriptions of what it was like. I honestly don't know how they managed to survive as sane humans who could go on with their lives.
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When someone else wants to take over your land and affect your way of life, then people tend to be much more passionate about war, and are able to relate to it and the causes behind it.
Obviously another factor is also time, living through a war (whether you participated in it or not) tends to make it much more 'real' than a war that happened years before your birth.
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