Comments on: Why Are Victims Our Only War Heroes?

By: Kathy K

Kathy K — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I'm afraid you are right.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

About 9-10 months ago (just after Baghdad fell) I wrote an essay for a print publication that I called "Where are the heros?"

I was highly annoyed that we have none from this war. All we have are victims and war criminals. (If a U.S. soldier does the slightest thing wrong they will report on him, but never on a hero.) Not only did the embeds go out of their way to not mention heros from this war, as soon as Jessica Lynch *might* have been call a hero, many in the media jumped on the story with both feet to drag her image down well before any of the facts were known.

I think it goes beyond PC but maybe that is just me.

By: akim

akim — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Very interesting post and a much deeper question than it might appear at first glance. Heroes were skillfully fabricated by unified-media in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia (far more so than in the Allied camp) - a hero ceases to be an individual and becomes an icon. An icon for what?

Curiously enough Jessica Lynch stands for a victim. A wounded girl-soldier rescued from a hostile hospital. A hero in the above sense would rather stand for a super-human effort. Either a tragic hero or a triumphant one - Ivan perished while stopping a whole tank division; Fritz blew up a thousand Ivans from one single tank.

Political Correctness (I call it PolCor)is just an off-shot of basic individualism proper to our society as we know it today. The only thing that could overturn that would be a truly immense disaster - a WWIII if you will. Then perhaps we'd want bigger-than-nature heroes to hold on to. And a cause to fight for with no sparing of life.

Another interesting thing is that this post about heroes stands in such a close vicinity to a post about whether a foetus constitutes human life (read: individual) or not. That's telling too :)

By: INDC Journal: "Randomly Tested for Lead-Poisoning"

INDC Journal: "Randomly Tested for Lead-Poisoning" — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

"Why Are Victims Our Only War Heroes?" James Joyner has the answer, and he's not pleased. I've thought about this phenomenon before, especially when a subconscious sense of shame occured to me as I watched some of the spectacular footage in the Grouchy Media Videos. It's almost...

By: Insults Unpunished

Insults Unpunished — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

War Heroes
Outside the Beltway: Why Are Victims Our Only War Heroes? James Joyner has a couple of links and some interesting thoughts on war heroes:Much of this is an artifact of 24-hour news television and historically low casualty rates. In WWII...

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