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New layout
Aug. 19th, 2005 10:08 pmNotice my new layout. Not very innovative, I suppose, but it'll do for now. And yes, I do have a paper I should be writing.
We watched The Fog of War in L&T, today. I highly reccomend it for anyone who is interested in Vietnam, Iraq (the "conflicts" in those countries, that is), war, human nature, evil, etc. Robert Macnamara explains what he's learned through his experiences in government and war, and, in particular, as Secretary of Defense for LBJ.
The thing is, he doesn't think he did anything wrong. Hundreds of thousands of civilians dead? Well, it was a mistake, perhaps, but "it's human nature to make mistakes." He gets tearful, remembering with emotion the death of a wing-man during the firebombing of Tokyo in during WWII; he impassively notes the 100,000 men women and children burned to death in that action. He cries for President Kennedy, he talks about his push to install seat-belts while the president of Ford Moters, but he denies any responsibility for Vietnam. "I don't recall authorizing the use of Agent Orange," he says, "and I certainly wouldn't have allowed it if it had been illegal." And at the same time, he claims to be very sensitive to war and destruction; to be very concerned with morality.
The thing is, he's clearly not a monster. He isn't inhuman. He loved his friends and family. But he's responsible for so many deaths. How can you reconcile this?
We watched The Fog of War in L&T, today. I highly reccomend it for anyone who is interested in Vietnam, Iraq (the "conflicts" in those countries, that is), war, human nature, evil, etc. Robert Macnamara explains what he's learned through his experiences in government and war, and, in particular, as Secretary of Defense for LBJ.
The thing is, he doesn't think he did anything wrong. Hundreds of thousands of civilians dead? Well, it was a mistake, perhaps, but "it's human nature to make mistakes." He gets tearful, remembering with emotion the death of a wing-man during the firebombing of Tokyo in during WWII; he impassively notes the 100,000 men women and children burned to death in that action. He cries for President Kennedy, he talks about his push to install seat-belts while the president of Ford Moters, but he denies any responsibility for Vietnam. "I don't recall authorizing the use of Agent Orange," he says, "and I certainly wouldn't have allowed it if it had been illegal." And at the same time, he claims to be very sensitive to war and destruction; to be very concerned with morality.
The thing is, he's clearly not a monster. He isn't inhuman. He loved his friends and family. But he's responsible for so many deaths. How can you reconcile this?
