You might have observed an increase in pro-conscription articles in your local media. It is not by accident. But who will fight the rich man’s wars?

10 February 2024 | James Porteous | Clipper Media News

John W. Gardner once said that ‘history never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always looks uncomfortable.’

Times have changed, of course. Now ‘history’ consists of ten-second sound bites and ‘social media’ notations that flash by in a millisecond, only to be replaced by new flashes of fleeting ‘insight.’ Opinionists now rule the media world.

In turn, the politicians and CEOs have created a global ‘plausible deniability’ that allows them to be held ‘accountable’ solely on their current words and deeds. If only briefly.

They know that history will NEVER be written based on eXTwitter feeds.

How could it, when it will barely be based on the propaganda we read in ‘legitimate’ newspaper stories!

Which brings us to ‘Ex-London schoolboy turned IDF soldier.’ (See below)

Now, I do not think there is anything even remotely insincere in Sam Sank’s recounting of his time in Gaza, so this item is not being offered as an invitation to stand for against the ‘war’ in Gaza.

But it does offer some insight into what might drive people to support the ‘spirit of war.’

By this I mean, we should not expect to see an accounting in The Times or any other newspaper that might shed light on the perspective of the ‘human animals’ battling to survive on the ‘other side’ of this harrowing war. Indeed, they are more likely to be presented as the enemy.

But as noted above, ‘history never looks like history when you are living through it‘ and at some point, even a decade from now, people will look back at this crisis of humanity and wonder how on earth humans ever believed that the massacrers in Gaza were anything other than a clear abomination.

Humans eventually did the same thing after World War II, after all. At some point, long after the fact, we finally asked about Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust.

And because of that, we can now look back at that moment in time and quietly ask ourselves: How is that we allowed the past nightmare to be replicated yet again?

That is a question for another day, but make no mistake: those who are being asked to jump on the Road to World War III bandwagon should read such accounts, because the ‘why didn’t anyone tell me war is hell’ is the only guaranteed end-result of the so-called path to glory.

Most of these rich old men now pushing for WWIII have never fought in a war, and they and their shareholders have no intention of ever leaving the comfort of their easy chairs to do such a thing. And nor will their sons and daughters.

They’ve seen ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Masters of the Air.’

But guess what? They will fiercely defend their wealth, but they understand that even the brilliant portrayal of Normandy in ‘Saving Private Ryan‘ could never fully convey the genuine horrors of war.

Remember: War is hell.

And finally, I will say that you might not have noticed it yet, but there is a worldwide (read Global North) push to ‘normalize’ the horrors of war (see daily horrors from Gaza) as well asking us to accept the clear and present need for ‘conscription.’ (‘It’s healthy to be on war alert’: Sweden’s conscription push gathers pace and If Europe wants to defend itself, it must build armies that people want to join and Will Britain Lose World War III.)

And now we can add the article below to that list. On the surface, it is offered as a ‘war is hell’ account, but it is worth noting that it also expects the reader to decide whether the ’cause’ itself is still just and noble.

There are many, many stories such as these cropping up, in much the same way that pandemic and #Standingfor stories seemed to appear everywhere all at once. In other words, it is not accidental.

And before you pooh-pooh this view, bear in mind that you are unlikely to see such op-eds in the US. The US Government (USG), after decades of bloody incursions, has finally mastered ‘no (provable) boots on the ground’ wars, and they are keen to start and arm such wars, but quite content to leave most of the fighting to someone else. But this, too, will change once the ‘war is hell’ fears are softened and fully sanitized.

Still, it is our job, as quasi-adults, to remind the young people inclined to fight the rich man’s wars that, despite what they see on Netflix and video games, killing is not a natural act for most people, whether done in combat or ‘wars’ against unarmed civilians. They must be trained to do this thing and the horrors they see, or even perpetrate, will remain with them forever.

That really is a part of human nature.

James Porteous | Clipper Media News