"The combatants in modern warfare pitch bombs from twenty thousand feet in the morning, causing untold suffering to a civilian population and then eat hamburgers for dinner hundreds of miles away from their drop zpne. The prehistoric warrior met his foe in the direct struggle of sinew, muscle and spirit. If flesh was torn or bone broken he felt it give way under his hand. And though death was more rare than common (perhaps because he held the pulse of life and the nearness of death under his fingers), he also had to live his days remembering the man's eyes whose skull he had crushed."

With today's modern technology ushering in new warfare techniques, we tend to loose ourselves and think of war as a video game. When I tell people that I'm in the Navy (especially peers and adolecents), I always get the same question "Did you ever kill anyone?" This always brings me to the realization that we have lost touch with what that really means, to take a human life and how easy it truely is.

We can drop bombs and guide them in using video camera's and satilite images. You see these things everyday on TV and think nothing of it. Playing SOCOM it's just easier to kill everyone in the area than move around them.

I always remember the question asked in "The Warrior Elite" when the class askes the former cop about his situation when he had to kill a person in an undercover operation. It wasn't for misguided bravado, it was to ask a serious question and how he delt with that situation. It is a part of the job that this is what we are going to be asked to do.

A warrior does not go out of his way to kill but does so because that is what is necessary in that situation.

There was a story about a group of SEALs providing security for a US embasy. A child the age of 14 or so came up with a RPG. The group of SEALs all had crosshairs on the kid but one of them convinced the kid that it would be wise to walk away, and he did. This coinsides with my last post about using your head.

HM3 Connelly USNR
PS sorry for using this as my personal soap box

quote:

Originally posted by John Connelly:
PS sorry for using this as my personal soap box

This is the best place to do it... from one who knows...

And how true is your comment: "With today's modern technology ushering in new warfare techniques, we tend to loose ourselves and think of war as a video game."

Thank you for posting!