View Single Post
Old 01-11-2010, 04:30 PM   #5 (permalink)
stevie667
Too Awesome for Aardvarks
 
stevie667's Avatar
 
Location: Angloland
Quote:
Originally Posted by ratbastid View Post
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.
__________________
Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information.
stevie667 is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360