And there's the rub: what you seem to get in the miliblogs - but which is lacking from most contemporary reporting, somewhat disengenuously I'd suggest - is that war can be fun. Maybe not if you're on the losing side or return home in a body bag or with bits missing, but for many men it can be a defining experience.
I say men because I will never forget the fear on the faces of the Serb women fleeing the victorious Albanian troops in Kosovo. But speaking for myself as we swung into the UN compound or as Bazpinder and I phoned home outside a British MASH unit, having survived the experience (while inside surgeons laboured over a pair of German journalists who did not), was exhilerating. I don't know how Simon, who went into action with Croatian irregulars earlier in the Yugoslav crisis, feels but there can be no denying that for boys raised on war stories and Action Man to find oneself in a scenario one has spent a childhood rehearsing can be a pivotal moment.
Of course we, along with the professional UK or US troops, have the freedom to choose whether to be involved or not. I can well imagine different, less attractive scenarios. But it is indeed awesome to watch an M1 in action, as most miliblogs would agree.
Gratuitous excuse to use a war pic of my own. Where were Respect and the MAB when Tony went to war to protect the muslims I wonder?
1 comment:
Yep, it was fun......for a while. Then it turned into the most profoundly soul-destroying experience you can ever hope not to imagine. Anyone who continues finding it enjoyable has probably already had their soul ripped out of them, never had one to begin with, or is a journalist (I leave it to you to decide which is the worse state of affairs).
The only people who I found enjoyed it on an on-going basis were clearly people of already-existing personality disorders who would have had great difficulty living in normal society. Most others, for whom the war had long since ceased to be fun, had developed serious alchohol problems (at least, that was the only substance they were abusing in plain sight), and would probably never be able to go back to that normal life they wished for so intensely.
Funnily enough, I was watching The Deer Hunter again the other night, and while I now think its an absolutely appalling and absurd movie in many ways, where De Niro, on returning home, says 'I feel a distance', pretty well summed it up for me after coming home myself.
If you want fun, go to Alton Towers.
Simon aka El Guerro
(which loosely means 'top bloke' or 'arsehole' depending on the context. Again, I'll leave it to you to decide.)
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