A long free-verse poem about the way wars are fought now versus in the past. |
Cavemen tribes battled enemy tribes face-to-face, while looking into their eyes as they smashed their bones and split open their skulls with stones and wooden clubs. They fought in close quarters, saw the fear on their faces. Medieval armies fought on foot, man-against-man as they hacked away with sword and battleaxe at close range. They saw limbs cut off, bodies split open, heads fly and at battle’s end were covered with dust, sweat, and the blood of their enemies. Victory meant overwhelming the enemy army on the field of battle by strength of arm and personal courage. Even the advent of bows and arrows still required close proximity. Invention of the rifle and cannon separated the armies in battle, but they remained in eyesight, within rifle range of each other. A soldier could kill without seeing the face of his enemy. Nonetheless, war still required troops be on the same ground, in the same country. They witnessed streams run red with shed blood, saw fields of green left trampled, dusty and blood-soaked. They shared the pain and suffering of battle along with their enemy. The arrival of airplanes with their bombs, ships with long-range guns, tanks with machine guns and cannon made the enemy into even more remote and faceless targets. Rarely did soldiers fight hand-to-hand anymore. Killing became impersonal. One simply dropped bombs on a city, fired artillery shells at map coordinates, or fired shells across the battlefield from inside a tank. Modern warfare further eliminated the need to share any proximity with the enemy. Missiles could be fired from planes, ships, submarines, or land-based sites far removed from the actual battleground. Killing the enemy at great distances became commonplace. Today a technician sitting at a video console outside Las Vegas can play a real-life video game whereby he targets a site half way around the world and directs a drone to kill an unsuspecting individual or group, their life and world ending with a flash of light and burst of flames. Afterwards the technician clocks out, drives to his home for a fried chicken supper with his loving wife and adorable children, followed by a night of reality television shows. No one would suspect he spent the day at war. Seeing and feeling the carnage wrought by war close up served as a reminder to those who would wage future wars as to the terrible consequences that followed upon their political rhetoric and actions. War should be atrocious and experienced close up by both sides. One must wonder if the ability to kill an unseen, faceless enemy, whose blood and guts go unseen as his body is being blown to bits, from such a long range away does not make war more tenable, hence bringing us closer to war. Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |