Re:Airmen who surveil the Islamic State never get to look away
by madez on Friday July 07, 2017 @07:11AM
(#14717521)
> This attitude--differentiating based on civilian-ness--is useful.
I disagree. War must be deadly and costly for both sides. Human intercation is heavily based on deterrents. One can see that in interactions in small and big groups. Taking away the deadliness and cost of war will make it happen more often.
Besides the obvious example, there is peace in europe for so long only because the war before has been so costly and deadly.
A power in the world that can wage military conflicts without significant loss in their rows is a disaster for the world.
Re:Airmen who surveil the Islamic State never get to look away
by ifdefdebug on Friday July 07, 2017 @07:44AM
(#14717660)
> there is peace in europe for so long only because the war before has been so costly and deadly
That's a bold statement and not supported by any evidence. Look at the Yugoslav wars. One of the most brutalized regions in WWII, and nobody gave a shit when it was about starting a new war some decades later.
This attitude--differentiating based on civilian-ness--is useful. Spreading it allows wars to do less damage, because if fewer civilians die then repairing the economy is easier afterwards. This leads to a host of good consequences, most importantly that it reduces the chance of renewed war later on.
Soldiers' lives aren't as important, in that sense. Sorry, but they're not. And soldiers are going to die no matter what; the cultural innovation here isn't treating soldiers' lives as worth little, it's treating civilians as highly valuable. Some of which has later spread to the soldiers as well...