Heroes and Villains (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} margins_of) wrote,@ 2004-11-06 16:27:00 |
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Satan
Just a moment ago I watched a U.S. marine commander, explain to the BBC why an assault on Falujah has the marines giddy at the opportunity to fight face to face with the as-of-yet unseen enemy.
“Now the enemy has a face, he’s called Satan, and he’s in Falujah.”
Ok, I can sort of imagine what I think it’s like to be a soldier in such a shitty, pointless war, waiting to be picked off by a roadside bomb or sniper so you can join your buddies in a well-deserved rest. And I can see how someone that believed in the devil would certainly have no trouble seeing him in the shadows of bombed-out Falujah, quietly encouraging that 16-year old with the RPG up on the rooftop.
But it’s still disturbing that soldiers think things like this, that there is either a literal or a figurative devil somewhere in this little town and that it is he that’s been causing all this trouble.
I guess it’s different for religious folks, but for me I can’t picture Satan as something other than a cartoon, and this soldier on TV just sounded like a superstitious lunatic with heavy artillery at his command.
And that sounds like bad news for the civilians and even the resistance fighters holed up in this soon-to-be shitstorm.
Just a moment ago I watched a U.S. marine commander, explain to the BBC why an assault on Falujah has the marines giddy at the opportunity to fight face to face with the as-of-yet unseen enemy.
“Now the enemy has a face, he’s called Satan, and he’s in Falujah.”
Ok, I can sort of imagine what I think it’s like to be a soldier in such a shitty, pointless war, waiting to be picked off by a roadside bomb or sniper so you can join your buddies in a well-deserved rest. And I can see how someone that believed in the devil would certainly have no trouble seeing him in the shadows of bombed-out Falujah, quietly encouraging that 16-year old with the RPG up on the rooftop.
But it’s still disturbing that soldiers think things like this, that there is either a literal or a figurative devil somewhere in this little town and that it is he that’s been causing all this trouble.
I guess it’s different for religious folks, but for me I can’t picture Satan as something other than a cartoon, and this soldier on TV just sounded like a superstitious lunatic with heavy artillery at his command.
And that sounds like bad news for the civilians and even the resistance fighters holed up in this soon-to-be shitstorm.
