I don't think we've ever really come through or come out the other side of any war. It always lives on in history, and by whatever way history wishes to interpret it. Often one side painting itself as the moral dancer. I can't believe how many wars there are in this world at the moment, I can;t believe how much of Putin's bombings were ignored by the us and the media, the flattening of Mauripol being one example, and what's worse is knowing that none of these wars will ever truly end... They will all linger on, regardless of treaties signed, and lands being carved up...until the next time! I don't see Israel as any different to any other war (Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza) being fought at the moment, they all involve the mass death of human beings, it;s just some people are more selective of the wars they choose to follow and the reason for that is the complete lack of the understanding of that word, empathy.
There are 35 wars currently in Africa alone. 21 in Asia. Seven in Europe and more. About time those with a conscience and a belief in the sanctity of all human life pulled their fingers out.
In this we can agree - and the first logical step would be stopping the supply of those weapons that cause the most carnage ... but unfortunately there are too many wealthy people too close to governments for that to ever be likely ...
Your last sentence sums it up ... where there is a lack of real empathy there will always be the spurious claims of 'acceptable collateral damage' etc and other bollocks ... there is no such thing... the deaths of children, any children, in war should always be universally deplored ...and condemned. .
I'll use Ukraine as an example rather than Israel which is quite an emotive one on this thread. I remember seeing the kids and old people, in the underground bunkers near homes (not talking stations here) plunged into dark and damp conditions. No where to have a piss or ****, no food available and very little water. Their flats completly destroyed by bombs, their playgrounds full of craters. Asking questions like how scared must those children be, how do the old and frail get their medical needs attended. Asking myself how long I would survive in those conditions. The solution to all this would have been not to fight, not to defend yourself against the enemy, how much worse would those conditions of been - the moral justice and reasoning being your freedom....but what would have really changed in those freedoms, restrictions in social media, something you and I never ever had, restrictions on who's in power, isn't only having two parties both right of centre much the same. To protect your freedoms, thousands of young men were slaughtered, put through a meat grinder, I struggle mentally with this concept, men that didn't have a choice, here's a gun now get your arse on that frontline. While their children, partner, mum, grandma all cower in the darkness, only for this story to be told in a century via history, and how wonderful and brave they all were, who are we really fooling here, ourselves? Picture for effect... please log in to view this image
Deplored and condemned are not the same as avoided. So at the end of the day, the children are still dead, just the people who killed them are condemned and deplored. Which makes not one hoot of difference to the dead children. The only way to avoid literally any dead children is to not have a war in the first place. Once conflict has started, it is unavoidable.
I don't really see my freedoms as anymore than what someone from China or Russia have. And the only differences would be apparent if I wanted to protest or had restrictions on my media content, but would I and if I did would I care. There are always minorities somewhere in the world being persecuted. Some might say China and Uyghurs, yet I could give India as an example, yet it's a country we have a relationship with on a broad range of mutual interests. Do the Russians and Chinese go on holiday, yes, the former mostly Turkey, the latter somewhere else in Asia is popular. So what about medical care, well each system is different in someway but no worse than being American and having to pay for it! But we won the war and history tells us the lessons of it....oh yeah we did and now our doors are open to anyone that turns up in a ****ing dinghy. Yeah but what about the lessons of history, oh yeah how to cause more war. I was watching a clip from Professor Brian Cox yesterday, that summed it all up for me, what will kill humans off (or something like that) - his reply... Humans!
'Any' dead children agreed ... way less dead children is avoidable - try not bombing refugee camps, hospitals, schools ... and definitely don't bomb areas that you've previously demanded non-combatants to head to as 'safe zones' ... that kind of **** deserves total condemnation and is unequivocally deplorable ...
We could also deplore and condemn those who embed themselves in civilian populations to either reduce their own risk or generate some decent PR when they get hit and swap their military uniform for a press vest when it suits. We won’t but we could.
Yeh that all sounds good in the land of us all getting along wonderfully by respecting each other and our values and cultures and such.. In the real world some cultures and nationalities come with baggage, and lots come with nothing but a big bag of ****. Ready to spread it wherever they are allowed to fester.
