The history teacher brought in video clips for my (and her) students to see the difference between war back then, and now. Forget about what they are fighting over, those few reasons never change, but how the wars are fought, tactics, weapons, and the like.
This is going to sound a bit odd, but I think I may prefer today's tactics than that of yesteryear. Knifes, swords, arrows and other sharp objects scare the heck out me. They can be all over the place, used with such skill, dexterity and can carve person into a "flower" in a few well put strikes.
A gun, yes, it's does more damage, in long distances and possibly more penetrable, but it's not as gory. It's more predictable (in a way). It's not, where is the knife, how is he holding it, how does he use it, gashing, gaping, ripping the body. It's more, he has a gun, he'll either get a shot or not, and if he does, I'm hurt in a localized spot, or dead...
There's also the concept of hand to hand combat, killing a person right in front of you. Watching life leak out from the eyes...I don't think I could handle either the giving or taking...
I watched the clips with my students, I had no problem with present day warfare...but when it came to the old stuff, I kept flinching, looking away, and checking my body to make sure still in tact.
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I quite agree with this... It sounds horrible to say it because today's methods cause so much more death and destruction, but they're SO relatively clean and painless!
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way -- a person who dies "Al kiddush HaShem" goes straight to gan eden. Today that can happen with one gunshot or bomb blast, the person barely knows what hit them before it's over. Whereas in the past, it was more common to be burned at the stake and the like...
Or maybe I'm just squeamish.