You can't look away....
A very interesting series of billboards around the US: SOLDIER
They're very simple, yet very striking - a soldier's face, shot as he lays on the ground. It's stark, and uncomfortable, but I like it. It's not glamorous, not heroic, not the ideal of the soldier that we see in movies and TV - it's human. That's something that we're encouraged to forget, I think. Soldiers are human beings, just like us. Military training does its best to re-shape their humanity, but they're still human, and acknowledging that seems to make people uncomfortable. Take a look at the comments - some of the more negative ones come from soldiers and their families, the very ones this project is trying to support.
Perhaps - and this is a little armchair psychology here - this is because if we actually thought about what we're sending these people into, what we're asking them to give up, we would hate ourselves? Folks don't want to see bodies, or flag-covered coffins, or the empty, broken stare of someone who has seen and done things that no one should ever have to see or do. It reminds us that war is not about glory, or ideals. It's about death and dying, and the people who volunteer to risk their lives are very rarely the ones who started the fight in the first place.
No one likes to think about it. Perhaps that's why soldiers have such a hard time getting the treatment they need when they get home from their war. They're a living reminder of the terrible thing we have done, and they raise uncomfortable ideas in our minds. But ignoring it won't make it go away.
War will always, always be with us. Humans aren't quite advanced enough to get rid of that. But we should enter into our conflicts without illusions about what we're doing, and any President who sends soldiers into combat should be able to look each one in the eye and say, "This fight is worth your life and soul." And mean it. Perhaps that won't end war, but it'll certainly make us a little less cavalier about getting into them.
They're very simple, yet very striking - a soldier's face, shot as he lays on the ground. It's stark, and uncomfortable, but I like it. It's not glamorous, not heroic, not the ideal of the soldier that we see in movies and TV - it's human. That's something that we're encouraged to forget, I think. Soldiers are human beings, just like us. Military training does its best to re-shape their humanity, but they're still human, and acknowledging that seems to make people uncomfortable. Take a look at the comments - some of the more negative ones come from soldiers and their families, the very ones this project is trying to support.
Perhaps - and this is a little armchair psychology here - this is because if we actually thought about what we're sending these people into, what we're asking them to give up, we would hate ourselves? Folks don't want to see bodies, or flag-covered coffins, or the empty, broken stare of someone who has seen and done things that no one should ever have to see or do. It reminds us that war is not about glory, or ideals. It's about death and dying, and the people who volunteer to risk their lives are very rarely the ones who started the fight in the first place.
No one likes to think about it. Perhaps that's why soldiers have such a hard time getting the treatment they need when they get home from their war. They're a living reminder of the terrible thing we have done, and they raise uncomfortable ideas in our minds. But ignoring it won't make it go away.
War will always, always be with us. Humans aren't quite advanced enough to get rid of that. But we should enter into our conflicts without illusions about what we're doing, and any President who sends soldiers into combat should be able to look each one in the eye and say, "This fight is worth your life and soul." And mean it. Perhaps that won't end war, but it'll certainly make us a little less cavalier about getting into them.