Friendly fire, natural selection, and peace
I heard the sound clip of US military pilots who accidentally killed a British soldier on the ground. They instantly understood from their heart that this was one of their own and therefore immediately began crying, getting sick, and even expecting a jail term.
Interestingly seconds earlier and throughout their careers they were dropping bombs on “the enemy”. And occasionally there must be an innocent person mixed in, but they don’t know whom or when.
In any event their normal reaction to killing is not very emotional but killing their own hurts them inside.
Therein lays the problem of war – each party sees themselves as separate from the other. Socio-politico-religious groups will do anything to protect their own including bombing others, but they will cry when theirs are harmed.
Once you “take sides” you will defend yours until the end and hurt the others in the same process. If we are all on the same side of humanity this would not be a problem. Miscommunications and misinformation are the ultimate reasons for war.
So if we communicate better with the rest of the world and cut deals to solve problems then we will have less bloodshed and economic hardships.
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One Comment on “Friendly fire, natural selection, and peace”
I haven’t heard the clips but not surprised of a reaction like this from pilots accidentally killing their own.
What’s interesting to me is cultural division and how that intangible gap allows the same pilot, or suicide bomber or any patriotic killer to “waste the enemy” and potentially feel good about it.
Band of Brothers is something I watched recently, and I found the interviews with surviving veterans amazing. One guy, “Shifty” Powers, had a very level headed approach to his experience in WWII. I’m paraphrasing here but about the men he killed, and the men who were trying to kill him he said something like “We might have been friends in different circumstances. We might have both enjoyed fishing … or hunting … but were all just doing our jobs, following orders.”
And that’s the bummer of it all. The old men in charge of the armies make the deals. They pick the fights at the peril of the people who have to do the killing and be killed or maimed.
If our race survives, humanity will one day look back at the absurdity of it all in the same way we look back on those who once believed our planet was flat and could be fallen off of.
*sigh*