Independance day

[fall_fire8]

On this Independence day weekend, I finally got around to watching Saving Private Ryan. I just finished the movie, and my first reaction is a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Perhaps I don’t watch enough TV to be desensitized to mass, corporeal violence, but I have never watched a movie that physically affected me as much and as long as

Comments

[sevda]

Around the time when it wasn't clear whether we'd be going to war with Iraq, it got very fashionable with some people to try to lay out the circumstances under which you think it's okay to go to war.. you know, just war theory and all that. I was amazed at how sure most people are that they can just reason it out.. It seems obvious to me that any sane person who really knows what war is would do anything to prevent it. The only circumstance under which I can imagine ordering troops into battle is if an enemy were actively attacking.. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong -- maybe initiation of force can be justified under certain circumstances. But there's no way in the world I could ever make the decision to do that.

[fall_fire8]

I would be able to understand using force if the enemy was directly attacking the country, then it becomes justified under self-defense. But initiating war while knowing that many people will die in the process seems like madness. It makes me wonder how the people who make the decision can live with it, and whether making the decision can traumatize someone as much being in war.