Quote:
Originally Posted by ratbastid
What does it hurt to let them be heroes? You're really going to go up to a dead soldier's mother and say, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but your son was just doing his job. Casualty of war."??
I'm as opposed to the war as anyone (and more than many), but the rhetoric to transform is the rhetoric that sends us TO war, not the words used to honor the war dead. Let the dead be, and let their families say whatever they want about them.
|
Exactly.
Society needs a bit of hero worship imo, but on people who do deserve it, like soldiers, rather than the cult of celebrity. As for the definition, number 1 sums it up, if someone is admired for their deeds, who is anyone to say they are not a hero for it?
Soldiers do risk their life for others, just landing the damned plane is risky enough in a warzone. They don't fight for a country, they fight for each other, risking their lives for each other. Armed service is above and beyond the monetary reimbersment (soldiers get paid crap).
However the cynical side of me thinks that the low (yes, low, look at other wars throughout the ages) bodycount allows a certain amount of public mourning to be devoted to the dead, instead of the 10,000 people who were killed in the latest offensive this week e.t.c. Pretty much 'one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic' thinking.