Thursday, February 14, 2013

War: Death of Pawns

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/images/chessboard_2.jpg 
 Our discussion today brought up a topic which I have thought of before about war. War destroys lives, be it soldier or civilian. The above image I feel appeals to this, because the pawns have their graves already dug and filled before a match event starts. The pawns (soldiers) are sacrificed for the ideals and beliefs of the ones in power. The death tolls (in their horrific amounts) that are created by war are told in numbers. They are not told through images or stories about the common suffering of both soldier or civilians.

"The larger a victory is, the more people have been turned into numerals. This is the crime of war: it reduces real human beings to abstract numbers" (Ha Jin, 193).

This is abhorrently true. Each number lost in a battle is a single human life. That life has its own memories, beliefs, friends and family. But that life is now reduced to a little insignificant number to be shipped home in a body bag.  That life, I feel is also offered little choice in the matter of war. Yu Yuan is an example of this, in that the politic of the Korean War matter little to him. Yet he is conscripted as a "volunteer" and given little choice in the matter. Following his capture and becoming a POW he simply wants to go home. In talking with Father Woodworth Yuan learns that according to Woodworth any communist is considered evil by the U.S. Yuan points out that many Chinese soldiers are only communists because they want to return home. Woodsworth responds with "I understand it's a tough choice, but life is full of choices." Yuan counters with "For most of us there's no choice" (Ha Jin, 81). 

As human society has evolved, so has war. War has become so technical that it has reduced human life to numbers. The larger the number, the more one side is "winning." The ability to  make choices is also impacted, in that during war, personal rights are nullified. POW's are massacred and leaders among them are labeled as "war criminals." War is the the great destroyer, yet it is human beings that make war possible.

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

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