MSNBC’s Chris Matthews must be one of the dumbest, or at least one of the least imaginative and least empathetic, people on the planet:
Chris Matthews just implied that modern warfare is much harder on soldiers than wars have ever been before because they are under so much more stress. He called it a “constant booby-trap” because they might be killed by an IED. Cliff Van Zandt agreed that this is worse than soldiers commonly experience.
Oh, really, Chris? Tell me, have you ever read “Over the Top,” by Arthur Guy Empey, an American who enlisted and served in the British Army during World War I, before the U.S. entered the war? Or “The Forgotten Soldier,” a German-French infantryman’s account of the Wehrmacht’s s defeat on the Eastern Front during World War II? I challenge you to read them and conclude that modern warfare is harder on soldiers. Or Eugene Sledge’s “With the Old Breed,” his account of serving with the First Marine Division on Peleliu and Okinawa, two of the Pacific war’s bloodiest battles?
Or if you don’t want to read about it, how ’bout asking this guy:
Or these, in the Balkans:
Or check out the ossuary at Verdun. This big monument thingie? Full of bones:
Or the men in this burial detail:
Or these vets of the Champagne campaign:
Or some of the 70,000 missing — missing! — from the Somme, where 20,000 British soldiers died on the first day.
Or these guys at Ypres. Note the stylish facial gear:
All wars are like this, Chris. Always have been. Always will be. That’s why it’s such a lousy idea to start one, particularly when you don’t absolutely have to.
