I often pontificate about being born in the time I was born in Earth's history rather than just a few centuries ago, and nowhere is that more evident than when I visit a battlefield. Especially in a battlefield where thousands of soldiers died, including most of the East Coast like the Civil War battles of Antietam, Gettsyburg, and various others that were the most devastating wars fought on American soil. I can only imagine the carnage of 20th century wars like WWI and WWII (and Korean War and Vietnam Wars after that), but once guns and other weapons were created, it just seems inhumane to have humans fight in wars. Even in the Civil War, when soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy had guns to fire from far away and cannons to fire death missiles into crowds of enemy soldiers, human beings are just being slaughtered by these scientific innovations; human life becomes so valueless on a battlefield; it just becomes about statistics, damage control, and the whims of the commanding officers. I am even more saddened by the fact we still have wars waging in various countries throughout the world, most famously in Ukraine between the Ukranians (led by their exalted leader Vladimiar Zelenskyy) and the invading Russians (led by Vladimir Putin). I'd hate to be a soldier in one of those armies being sent to the front line for what? It's the 21st century where multiple countries have the capability to blow up metropolitan areas with just one missile, advanced drone technology that has facial recognition capabilities and doesn't need to be fired by a person on site, not to mention the now old technology of death machines tanks, artillery, and automatic guns, and yet I'm being sent to fight as a human being as just a number to in a war that's became stagnant and has no end in sight.
MJ and I were both moved by the Gettsyburg Battlefield museum we visited today, especially since MJ was affected by the Korean War and how many had to die from South Korea defending the nation. The mechanics of the 3-day battle (July 1- July 3, 1863) were not that important for us, but the exhibits depicting the aftermath of the war were really telling: how many people lay dying on the battlefield even after Lee's forces had retreated, where some of the wounded were picked up to be saved, but some were so severely wounded they were just left to die there among their fallen comrades. The kind of rudimentary medical equipment used to try to help the men: no anesthesia, only some crude form of chloroform, "quinine" was used to treat any minor ailments, and saws.....to amputate legs, without sterilizing them. Untrained nurses and "surgeons" got good at what they did just by repetition on so many wounded combatants. It's like going to a party except you only show up after the party has ended and everyone at the party needs immediate attention from what happened at that party, and you only have a lancet (small surgical tool).
Just as the movie MJ and I watched today at the battlefield said, families just pray that their son did not die in vain, but in almost wars, AT LEAST one side's efforts will have gone in vain, if not both sides' efforts. And for what? The leaders of both countries needing to act tough and retaliate so that their threats are not taken as empty threats, so that they can get more leverage at the barganinig table in settlement negotations? War is absolutely the worst thing possible in human society where thousands of people (nowadays, possibility of millions) can die within an hour, almost genocide-like number,s but it gets justified for a "good cause." I noticed that none of the generals in the wars lose their lives on the battlefield (well, I guess Stonewall Jackson got shot by friendly fire and died a few days later) but Robert E. Lee stayed alive long enough to surrender to Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis was around to surrender for the Confederacy, Abe Lincoln was killed (but not as a direct cause of any fighting, he died watching a play at Ford's Theater called "Our American Cousin." Zelenskyy and Putin are not the ones having any risk of dying, it's all these soldier who are mere pawns (and there a lot of these pawns with a living breathing soul encapsulating each one) who are thrown into battle like they're playthings. I played chess earlier in the morning and I used a lot of pawns to progress the game and try to win, and each time I "killed" a pawn or had a pawn taken I didn't really think too much about it; it seems like that's the attitude that an army general had to take, except there were lives behind each of those pawns. Apparently, Robert E. Lee was told by the general under him Longstreet that "Pickett's Charge" as it was called would not work; Lee just ignored (maybe pride, maybe just wrong information, bad intuition, whatever, like blundering a piece in chess) and just forged ahead and had 12,000 (!) Confederate soldiers just march onto the fields and let cannons fire into them like bowling pins. Devastating.
Sorry for another "war is bad" piece but I think society is a little desensitized about battles; I know I certainly was growing up just reading about these wars without any consequences or understanding of soldiers fighting in the battles.
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