War. There is no such thing as a good war. There is no such thing as a won war. I do not care how pretty the graphics will be. I do not care how clean and well designed the maps will be. I do not care how glorious the images shown to us will be. I do not care how well picked the words will be. I do not care how often the word "truth" will be abused in the time ahead of us. I do not care how many "good reasons" there will be.
War, any kind of war, is tragic, horrible, sad, unjust on a large scale. There is nothing beautiful about war, there is nothing beautiful about destruction, there is nothing good about destroying life on a large scale. War is a very short word for killing large amounts of people in a systematic and targeted way. War is a short word for targeted destruction and barbaric acts.
I can not think of any war in history that would have brought anything good to those who were killed in them or to those who's families were injured.
How will we explain this situation to our children and grand children? Or will they be happy with the explanations which are being written now, the pretty graphics, the animations and glorious recordings the new definitions of truth?
Truth?
Truth is still alive?
I thought truth was the first thing to be killed in this "war".
Posted by: joergen on March 17, 2003 05:47 PMhmm, i think the concept of war and destruction is hard to explain to a country who's majority has never seen any war or destruction. maybe most of the people here in the states think war is some sort of sport or game.
i grew up in a city which was bombed in 1945. 70% of the city were destroyed, 5000 died in one night, and the city wasn't even a military target (they mixed it up with another city). in 2000, the aftermath of the attack was still visible, and many elderly people could tell you stories about that night.
no war can ever be fair, just or good.
and it's always the little people, who have to suffer, almost never the big shots.
i really hate war...
Posted by: joergen on March 17, 2003 06:03 PMthe animation, graphics, and catch phrases are all part of the branding of war. branding that ensures you watch specific networks and ultimately the advertising of those networks.
one thing i must debate with you, i am not sure this is a war, i am calling it an invasion.
either way, it was something i was hoping we would not have to watch. your right there is no satisfactory explanation of adult actions to our children.
Posted by: griff on March 17, 2003 07:15 PMyou know, there are electric (okay nuke power isn't the best option but better than oil?) cars..there are (even better) SOLAR cars...and i am just using the car to represent most anything that requires power.
i think america could be a solar powered country in the matter of a decade, but that would require a regime that isn't getting kick backs from oil companies, senators that aren't in bed with trucking companies and so on. george w. bush could give some spine tingling anti-commie, errrmm, i mean anti-iraqi speech a la jfk circa 1960 about how he wants to see a man in a solar power automobile by 2009, how the future of american depends on it. how the triumph of good over eveil depends on it.
and our great thinkers and fighters would concentrate on doing something good not destruction and at the same time it would be pulling our greasy fingers away from the freedome fry frying vat of the middle east.
should i take this over to chris' blog?
Posted by: em!ly on March 18, 2003 12:25 AMThere is no way any country could be powered by regenerative energy like sun, wind or water, especially not a heavily industrialized country like the US.
Germany has a large installation of wind power plants but still they supply less than 10% of the total usage. Their power is a lot more expensive than nuclear power or coal and as such is heavily sponsored by the gouvernment (in order to get rid of nuclear power plants).
So in short: there's no way around oil. And it's being demonstrated how important it really is.
Posted by: Sven on March 19, 2003 09:31 AMIt's simply not true that wind power plants would be too expensive. They make profit only three years after they have been set up. Does anyone know the figures of nuclear power plants?
I think it was something like 15 (!) years!!
Some other figures: 20 percent of the world consume 80 percent of this world's resources -
But, like, how can you question that, after all we are the "good" guys!!!