Don't Ask about the War
The Ashland Independent Film Festival is going on right now. Tonight, Mark & I saw a pair of documentaries: Ask Not (about Don't Ask, Don't Tell) and The War of 33 about the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006.
"The War of 33" showed the horrors of war -- the "innocent" people being hurt and killed; homes being destroyed, leaving families homeless. One can argue whether anyone is innocent who silently supports -- or even does not actively fighting against -- "bad" organizations, but the people in this film were not the ones who were directly shooting or bombing Israelis.
By contrast, "Ask Not" was all about people wanting to become soldiers. Particularly poignant was one gay man who signed up to fight in Iraq because he believes that we need to stabilize that country. Having just seen "The War of 33", the thought that this soldier's actions might be viewed by the Iraqi civilians in the same way that the Lebanese viewed the Israeli army made me really think about some of my own attitudes.
It's hard for me to know whether war is ever justified. Knowing what we know now about Hitler and the atrocities committed, I think that I would say that WWII was "justified", just as I think that invading Iraq as a "preemptive" maneuver was not "justified".
There are times that I truly admire Gandhi, but I don't know if I have his patience or belief in the human race that things will actually get better.
Coming back to these two movies, the theme in both of them was humanity -- wanting to be able to do what you believe in without having overly harsh consequences. And in both these movies, it's clear that there is no happy end in the near term.
"The War of 33" showed the horrors of war -- the "innocent" people being hurt and killed; homes being destroyed, leaving families homeless. One can argue whether anyone is innocent who silently supports -- or even does not actively fighting against -- "bad" organizations, but the people in this film were not the ones who were directly shooting or bombing Israelis.
By contrast, "Ask Not" was all about people wanting to become soldiers. Particularly poignant was one gay man who signed up to fight in Iraq because he believes that we need to stabilize that country. Having just seen "The War of 33", the thought that this soldier's actions might be viewed by the Iraqi civilians in the same way that the Lebanese viewed the Israeli army made me really think about some of my own attitudes.
It's hard for me to know whether war is ever justified. Knowing what we know now about Hitler and the atrocities committed, I think that I would say that WWII was "justified", just as I think that invading Iraq as a "preemptive" maneuver was not "justified".
There are times that I truly admire Gandhi, but I don't know if I have his patience or belief in the human race that things will actually get better.
Coming back to these two movies, the theme in both of them was humanity -- wanting to be able to do what you believe in without having overly harsh consequences. And in both these movies, it's clear that there is no happy end in the near term.