This section made me think of how sometimes we hear on the news about how a team of soldiers in another country killed a large group of innocent people. Trout talks about how he was supposed to keep a secret, that his platoon had killed 59 women, and it made me think about how I've heard (supposedly) about that happening among our army as well.
Military history tells us of innumerable instances of wanton violence that were long kept secret. Your response brings a very resonate scene from Apocalypse Now (1979) to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8RY88NGkE
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a very prevalent issue in every violent conflict history has seen. The most obvious example is the culmination of WWII in regards to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The choice to end the war at the sacrifice of so many innocents was a difficult one, and history remembers this chapter in a very conflicting manner. In modern times, to avoid evoking emotional responses when the issue of innocent casualties arise, the term "collateral damage has entered our vernacular.
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