This isn't some aberration. What these soldiers did to these people is what we did to Iraq. We attacked it because it was there, and we could, and we thought it would make us feel better. We did it because we're stupid, because we're brutal, because we're bored, because we don't like foreigners, because we're scared of our own shadow. We did it because the seriousness of war made us feel like serious people. We did it because we're angry and unhappy, and we'd rather take our anger and unhappiness out on others than accept any measure of the "personal responsibility" we claim to hold dear.Me, though I've never been to war, I can't help but think this is what war is, and what war is for. I also can't believe I'm not the only person who thinks we've seen this movie before:
What, My Lai?
FOr all of the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
ReplyDeleteThe killing, the dying, was all done in vain;
For, Willie McBride, It all happened again,
And again and again and again and again
Eric Bogle