Looking from the Outside

During and after a war we only talk in plural. On the news and newspaper, the headlines say: Today 300 more soldiers died. The numbers are so big and appear so much that we start forgetting and seeing all of the soldiers as just another one. We don’t realize that each of those soldiers had a family waiting for them and they were putting their lives in front of the others. I don’t believe that this is fair and each soldier must be recognized for its courage and abilities. “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” shows a great example of how the leader’s main goal was to win and if one soldier died there should be another one ready to replace him. He states: “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” We can see how useless the soldiers felt in war, if they only knew that if it weren’t for them our countries might be on crisis. On the other hand, when prisoners, they were treated as animals and sometimes even objects. In Slaughterhouse Five they describe how Billy was treated like a dog when he was a captive from the Americans. “Billy was told to hang the tag around his neck along with his American dogtags, which he did.”(Pg.92) Why treat them like animals if they are just like them but with a different ideology? As they suffer and miss their families we are looking from the outside and paying attention to the propagandas. All of the propagandas had a hidden message and they only showed what would work as a favor for them. They will put positive aspects of the war to get the support from the rest of the nation. “They made war look stylish and reasonable, and fun.” (Pg.94) They knew that the only way to captive the attention of the rest was by making war look as something good. Would things might have been different if they hadn’t lie? The lies are meant to be uncovered, so why lie in the first place?
In Colombia there are thousands of soldiers living in the jungle sacrificing their lives for ours. When do we thank them? Do we even think of them and their families? We completely ignore them and we don’t appreciate what they do for our country. So next time we have the opportunity to meet them we should make them feel priceless.