This comment was by Randy Strauss on G+
I’m reminded of something General Douglas MacArthur said, “The Soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
But, that is not true. The deepest wounds and scars of war are borne by the families and loved ones of soldiers who sacrifice their lives. From parents to spouses to fatherless and motherless children; they are the ones who suffer the most.
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photo by kyngpao /flickr
Mike.
That’s sort of the point, isn’t it?
No sense in going to war expecting to fare worse than the other guy.
No, the people who the soldiers shoot, bomb and gas bear the deepest wounds of war.
You’ll note that Hillary Clinton also missed a point: Men lose sons, brothers, fathers. Didn’t cross her mind. Wonder why. In addition to my mother losing a son, my sister losing a brother, I lost a brother and my father lost a son.
So we don’t count?
It varies on a case-by-case basis, depending on what the soldier’s experience is. Some military personnel experience hardly any hardship at all, and some experience the most inhumane suffering beyond all imagination. The U.S. military still has a really high tail-to-tooth ratio. “Serving in the military” and “being in combat” are NOT synonymous with each other.
That being said, there’s no way that their families *always* suffer worse than they do. This reminds me of that really unfortunate quote attributed to Hillary Clinton about how women are always the biggest victims of war because war makes them widows. Umm…no.
Sort of like what Hillary Clinton said, para, “Women are the primary victims of war. We lose sons, husbands, brothers.”
That being dead thingy doesn’t count, apparently, it being the men who are dead.
It’s probably true that families pray for peace more intensely than soldiers, but I don’t think they suffer more when a soldier’s body is ripped to pieces. Each suffers horrific trauma, in different ways.