I’m reminded of an episode of MAS*H where a bomber pilot ends up being treated at the 407 and actually gets exposed to the carnage of the front lines firsthand, turning what before were remote little specks all the way down on the ground into actual flesh and blood human beings being blown to pieces.
It’s easy to ignore or rationalize something as horrendous as killing when you’re distanced from it. Curious how we stopped televising our wars, eh? No more embedded journalists showing the masses the horrors of war - the suffering of both sides, even - just the occasional brusque news report “…another round of deployment in Iraq this month…”, or “…a half dozen militants were killed in a precision strike…”, or any of countless other technically accurate but soulless reports that don’t actually convey the true, terrible meaning of what has happened.
