When Napoleon crossed the Niemen, at the outset of the 1812 French invasion of Russia, he had under his command 422,000 men, give or take a few proudly beating hearts. When he approached those same waters the following year, this time from the east, in sluggish, worn down retreat after defeats in Moscow, Borodino, Smolensk…his ranks had been cut to barely 10,000.
There is a bizarre importance given to those who wage war. People fear and loath names such as Charles Manson who's death toll is basically just negligible compared to someone like Napoleon.I myself wrote an article about
Things That Nobody Seem To Mention About Napoléon Bonaparte two months ago.
It is estimated that between one and three million German civilians were slain during WWII. Who murdered these people? It’s almost considered indecent to ask, lest blame fall on heroes’ shoulders. Over in the Pacific, Japan lost between a half- and one-million civilians. Who killed these people, these men and women and children? Did they receive medals for doing so? Were they honored by their own state, welcomed home with parades and confetti?
Imagine for a second that The Axis Alliance was victorious in WWII. How might history remember President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, ordering the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans in “War Relocation Camps” across the United States?
Switzerland, which stayed famously neutral (despite their inconvenient geography), lost 100 civilians…and zero soldiers. New Zealand, meanwhile, lost nearly 12,000 troops, many of whom fell in places like Maleme and Galatas, during the Battle of Crete, and in far flung outposts in Italy and in Northern Africa. Again, these poor sods would have done better to stay at home, tending to their personal affairs, taking care of their families and ignoring heartfelt pleas from “society” for “shared sacrifice.” In all of WWII, not a single Kiwi civilian life was lost due to war.
When people die at war it is easy to spread hate and get more enlisted. Medals can be distributed and shows can be put up. Then movies can be made and stories can b written. But avoiding war is a boring thing.There is nothing to memorialize. The lives are going to be boring and it is the sons who are going to bury the fathers instead f the other way around. But this peaceful boredom is the one to be desired. Those who create and sustain it are the ones to be celebrated. The only exception is the weapons taken to defend oneself from aggressions. It is the only kind of war that can actually end.
