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Carpeperdiem's avatar

The sense of history is thick in those places. We can look back easily and say war is bad. Armchair quarterbacking is my specialty, too. Washing your hands of the whole messy business is easy, and maybe even satisfying to some extent, but "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". If not for the bravery and commitment and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of men and women, there, on those fields, the world would be a very different place. If you can't appreciate that I can't help you.

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Queen Méabh's avatar

I do appreciate it. Both my parents fought in WWII, and they fought for good reasons. But the whole thing could have been avoided if diplomats and statesmen and businessmen and citizens had stood against it before the war began. It didn't have to happen, and that is disturbing to me. We are in a not dissimilar situation today, and war is not inevitable, but some people seem to want it. That is also disturbing to me. One thing I got from my visit to Gettysburg is that war is something people should do everything possible to avoid.

I know it's a bit superficial to talk about Star Trek, but my favorite episode of TOS is "A Taste of Armageddon" in which Captain Kirk says ""Death, destruction, disease, horror. That's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided."

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