Before terrorism was such a prevalent problem I'm sure war was much
different. I can imagine war before terrorism was much less violent and bloody
and somewhat more moral. I'm sure they did not torture their prisoners as
harshly as we do now, they probably did not put them in little boxes or hang
them by their limbs from the ceiling. They probably did not make them get
naked, put a collar on them, and walk them like a dog. Terrorism has brought
out the worst in war. It has made war become bloodier and dirtier than ever
before. Although, I'm not sure what about terrorism causes war to be more
violent. It may be because it is more of a personal attack. These enemies
aren't just attacking for reasons of money or land. Instead, this group of
enemies is attacking because they truly hate Americans. They hate with such a
passion that they find it necessary and urgent to kill as many Americans they
possibly can. Also, it is not simply just a war between those who choose to
participate, it is a war in which everyone is involved--willing or not. We
saw in the film “Zero Dark Thirty” some of the various terrorist attacks that
took place under Osama’s reign. Not only were they aggressive in their attacks but
also the Americans were aggressive in their apprehension. The many torturing scenes
and the ending sequence when the soldiers will killing any and anyone in their
way, including grieving women, serves as an example of the extended violence
that takes place in the war on terrorism. It isn’t a clean fight and is definitely
more brutal and bloody than a normal war.
With the advancements of modern technology weapons have gotten significantly better at killing people. In turn, humans have gotten better at going to war. In the first wars we looked at this year including World War II and the Vietnam War, we saw large numbers of men and women being killed. In World War II with the Jews and in the Vietnam War with local peoples. Now that technology has advanced, we can more accurately pinpoint who are enemy is and target them alone. This is not to say that there arent still many civilian casualties, but I am assuming fewer. Another major difference is that terrorists do not represent a country. There are no drawn lines of their area that they own and they are more imbedded in the community. A theme we saw with Here, Bullet was that the enemy could be anybody. This has led to more extreme tactics in finding out who the enemy is. We have implemented torture methods which go against every law of human decency. We spy on our own people in ways that completely ignore the constitution. We no longer draw out battle lines and charge at the enemy over a field of battle. Certainly the honor of war has disappeared. In this modern age, it is an idea we are fighting. This has remained constant through all the wars we have studied. Vietnam War was about the idea of democracy, WWII was about defending our identity of America, today, we fight an enemy who uses insidiuous tactics such as bombs and planes to attack us. Our own soldiers have had to adapt new philosophies on war as time has gone on.
ReplyDelete