Glorification of the military creates only more bloodshed     By Samantha McCarville A few days before Thanksgiving break I decided I needed to take some time to relax, so I went to a movie with some of my friends. I was ready to have a great time and enjoy the movie, when the screen was filled with guns and military personnel. Momentarily I was confused. Had we come into the wrong movie or was this just a preview for some horrible upcoming show? In reality, it was something far worse: military propaganda. More than just that movie experience has upset me. During my history class on Tuesday we had a wonderful discussion about the Battle of Antietam and the generally bloodiness of the Civil War. People who usually sit in the class falling asleep were awake and animated as soon as we started talking about soldiers getting their limbs removed. The eagerness of some in the class to learn the details of this bloodbath and the profound interest they had in the subject was too much. It’s all sickening. Glorification of the military is, in my opinion, one of the most horrendous acts of American society. But alas, it happens all the time in movies, video games, cartoons, paintings, children’s toys, and various other media. Americans are continuously de–emphasizing the horrors of war by making them just another movie. War isn’t a plot in a movie. War isn’t glory and fame. Rather it’s dirty, depressing, and devastating. War is real people dying. War is real homes being destroyed and real societies being torn apart. War is families being torn apart. For some reason we, as a society, cannot seem to resist the pull of war and violence. We love reading stories and watching movies about war heroes. Presidential candidates past and present have used their military records to gain votes. Society rewards those who participate in war. Think of the greatest American presidents. Now think of which war they’re associated with. We teach our children the history of our country and about our great achievements. We teach our children that it is wrong to hurt others, that it is wrong to steal, and that it’s wrong to murder other people. When it comes to the military, we teach our children that it’s good to serve their country and maybe to die for it. In times of war, we expect our military personnel to win battles for us and in so doing spread democracy and liberty. However, in order to “spread democracy” and “protect liberty” our military has to kill the enemy. This may seem like a simple and straight forward concept but only because society doesn’t want to think about what it means. To win wars soldiers have to destroy their enemies. To destroy their enemies soldiers have to end their lives. By ending their enemies’ lives the soldiers commit murder–something we teach our children isn’t right. Many try to justify military action and, therefore, murder by claiming that it is for a just cause, often the liberation of some oppressed people. The logic is that it’s okay to kill people if you’re murdering them for a moral reason that will somehow help society. Hitler felt justified in killing six million Jews. He thought he was doing something morally right that would help society. I think we would all say that the Holocaust was wrong and a horrible loss of innocent human lives. Of course, the argument against the Hitler argument is that he murdered civilians and not soldiers. That claim makes the assumption that there is a distinction between the two. Civilians and soldiers are both human beings. American cling to the ideas of the Constitution, notably the idea that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” All men are entitled to life. Taking away the life of another is a serious breach of their unalienable rights and yet we do it all the time. Yet another pro–militarism argument is that in these trying times we need our servicemen and women to protect us from the terrorists who will attack us. We could be invaded at any time. The size of our military may encourage threats instead of deter them. Think about it. If a foreign country had a massive army and many bombs and other weapons of mass destruction what would the United States do? We’d probably invade them, or wait – I think we already did that. If that’s our reaction, then it’s probably safe to assume that other countries would react that way as well. Citizens of the US are just like citizens of any other country because we are all people. We are all entitled to certain rights, most important the right to our lives. Humans don’t need protections from outside forces; we need protection from ourselves. War isn’t that plotline in a movie or story. It’s real people murdering and being murdered. Modern society has made victories in war it’s crowning achievement for too long. Let’s achieve something really great–let’s stop killing each other for once and see what other things we can accomplish. (Dec. 5)     Opinion Home