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Saya · 03-13-2012, 07:35 PM

I think we also have pretty colonialist attitudes towards the Afghanis. We invaded out of paternalistic sympathy for the poor oppressed Muslim savages, after all, who couldn't save themselves. We don't hold them up to the same morals we hold ourselves to, because they are lesser than. Taliban or ANA attacks are what we expect of them, so its not really news. When soldiers fail to live up to our ideal of the saviours of the world and ambassadors of democracy, of course we're shocked.

People have poor memory when it comes to war. When we do badly in a war, we want to forget. Look at Vietnam, deaths of civilians was ordered by the army and the GIs were very reluctant and eventually revolted, but no one remembers that, we just think Vietnam GIs went crazy and massacred and enjoyed it. No one talks about the war crimes the Allies committed in WWII. We have this desire to believe every time we were in war, we were justified, we were heroes, and we conquered an evil enemy. No one can handle the fact that in prolonged battle, people cannot act rationally. Psychologically, we can't handle modern warfare, so things like this happen despite the best of intentions.

03-13-2012, 07:35 PM	#10
Saya Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 9,548	I think we also have pretty colonialist attitudes towards the Afghanis. We invaded out of paternalistic sympathy for the poor oppressed Muslim savages, after all, who couldn't save themselves. We don't hold them up to the same morals we hold ourselves to, because they are lesser than. Taliban or ANA attacks are what we expect of them, so its not really news. When soldiers fail to live up to our ideal of the saviours of the world and ambassadors of democracy, of course we're shocked. People have poor memory when it comes to war. When we do badly in a war, we want to forget. Look at Vietnam, deaths of civilians was ordered by the army and the GIs were very reluctant and eventually revolted, but no one remembers that, we just think Vietnam GIs went crazy and massacred and enjoyed it. No one talks about the war crimes the Allies committed in WWII. We have this desire to believe every time we were in war, we were justified, we were heroes, and we conquered an evil enemy. No one can handle the fact that in prolonged battle, people cannot act rationally. Psychologically, we can't handle modern warfare, so things like this happen despite the best of intentions.