Military March: The complexity of war
‘Military March’ is an article series where I hope to bring up everything I have read and learnt about the military forces. Especially in the current period of war between Russia and Ukraine.
In memory of Umar. May your soul find peace.
SEO experts across all digital media platforms have been pondering and trying to figure out ways to make their website rank at the top of the Google search results since Russia declared war on February 24, 2022. But what does one aspect of digital marketing have to do with a serious situation you might wonder?
Profitability
In any event of war throughout human history, soldiers were motivated through the end result. They were promised treasures, slaves, the possibility to become a leader of their army, among many other things. However, in today’s day and age, many soldiers have come to realize through their own experiences or in other forms, that war does no good to anybody. In a time where many soldiers refuse to take up arms and advocate for peace talks, who gains the spoils?
For the 21st century, it is the media. The accessibility and ease of access provided by the internet is both a blessing and a curse. Media aims to commodify any situation to bring them profits. Though not everyone involved may have that goal in-sight. Some might actually wish to raise awareness about the horrible effects of war, but profiting off of it is an unfortunate by-product.
Business unarguably provide many benefits to our growth as a society in terms of employment, building economies, and more. But they are also ruthless when it comes to making a dime. I have been conditioned for a long time that things are black and white, right or wrong but war changes the equation. New Visions wrote a wonderful piece on Timeline about Coca Cola’s journey throughout one of the worst wars humanity had witnessed, and how did a multinational beverage company continue to survive and thrive despite the fact (link here). TLDR: Morals go out the window.
What about soldiers?
300 glorifies the attitude of a Spartan soldier which was ‘Conquer or Die’. It constantly showed us that there was nothing more beautiful and glorious than a death on the battlefield for a Spartan warrior. Progressing through history, soldiers were promised various incentives among spoils of war and promotions. But this does not necessarily make them the victor.
I once was part of a bunch of young, impressionable children who thought that having a uniform, medals, access to an armory, and fighting for what’s right leaves the soldier as the victor but I could not be more wrong. Joining the military seems like signing up for an expensive death, at most. “Good soldiers follow orders” which means that even if there is something you may not want to do, you have no other choice. Rather, you would have your self identity drilled out of you throughout training, so you function as part of a hivemind.
I have been criticized for maintaining a pacifist approach towards war, called a coward, traitor, among others. But I believe that grief is a universal emotion that has the ability to unite all of us. Even if the following tweet on a conversation between a (now deceased) Russian soldier and his mother doesn’t convince you that war brings nothing good, I hope it helps you reflect on your thoughts as to why do you support it, and if you are someday willing to pay the same price.
Coming to the question as to who truly wins a war? History. More importantly, history that is written by the victor. There are undeniably many stories lost to history simply because the victor, despite the losses, has the ability to tell the story as they see fit and silence the survivors. By reading this, I don’t wish for everyone to campaign against war, rather analyse why do you wish to be part of one in the first place?
Spec Ops: The Line — Raising awareness on the commodification of something as complex as war.
Spec Ops: The Line is a wonderful game that aims to authentically depict human morals and emotions during war.
Spoilers ahead (TW: Horrifying scenes, blood, violence)
The game puts you as the leader of a squad of three Delta Force soldiers with a lot of plot armor. As you navigate a war-torn Dubai to find a platoon of soldiers that refused to evacuate, you stumble upon them as they are now planning to take control over the city.
If you went ahead and watched the video but are still confused, allow me to explain.
Walker (the protagonist) just committed a war crime by using White Phosphorus or ‘Willy Pete’. It is a chemical that when exposed to oxygen, burns furiously till there is nothing left. Even if you do manage to cut it off from oxygen, it remains in a dormant state until exposed again, continuing which it start burning again. So you can imagine what it does to the human skin.
When Lugo blames the player, notice that he points at the camera because the person at fault is you. Walker justifies his actions by moving on and refusing to accept the insanity of the actions he committed. Before the bombing, he mentions that you don’t have a choice (with reference to the player) and proceeds with it.
Though this is one scene among a game that spans roughly four to five hours, it shows a highly desensitized audience what it truly means to take a life. No matter how justified your actions feel, the end of the game shows that there is no escaping confrontation for the consequences of your actions. Especially not when you saw a mother trying to protect her child and get ignited alive in the process. The videogame was created amidst the wave of several first person shooters like Call of Duty which gave you the feeling of being a hero in war and spilling blood without a second thought, reducing human lives to frags (gaming slang for ‘kill’) and might have more influence on a gamer, though it applies to everyone. The commodification of war hurts all and so does its mere existence.
