War Is Normal
Henry here. When I was in cadets there wasn’t much training but I chose to train as a medic. I thought that was the most civilized role. I especially was not eager to kill people.
I had an old supervisor, long since dead, who made the same choice. At 15, he lied about his age to get into the British army and became a stretcher bearer. Going through the horror of trench warfare in WWI, he eventually had a breakdown and was returned to Britain to recover. He said that stretcher bearers were the toughest of the tough and eventually it broke him. They made fun of, and distanced themselves in every way to try to keep the pain of what they were doing and seeing daily out of their minds.
These thoughts along with that of the futility and foolishness of war tumble through my mind as I read about the 90th anniversary of the battle for Paschendaele, Belgium. Some 500,000 allied soldiers were killed there and, I think, about an equal no of German troops.
The newspaper article highlights that about 100,000 still remain unaccounted for 90 years after this bloody and senseless battle. Apparently the only spoils of the battle was the capture of a small village church.
So the search goes on for the lost 100,000 bodies. Every year the curator says some 40 or 50 are found.
That was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Somehow that determination did not last long in our collective hearts. If such carnage could not change us perhaps, as Dr. James Hillman says in his latest book: “War is normal.” If he is right, then the question is, how then do we deal with this natural tendency, and reduce its barbarism?