Civilian Warfare
by lyndsey.anderson ~ November 4th, 2010. Filed under: Uncategorized.The book S. introduces our class to a new aspects of war that we never really discussed deeply before. Civilians play an important part in wars, especially since the twentieth century. I believe that wars used to be more about hand to hand, one army fighting another for the most part. Although, the capture and raping of civilian woman has been a staple in war for centuries, only more recently has it been on this great a scale. Since the twentieth century, when terrorism became more widely used, civilians became as much a part of war as the army.
Now its common to hear of villages being bombed during wartime or of “insurgents” being detained. Now war is not about destroying the other side’s army, its about breaking down and destroying their way of life. It isnt fair that innocent people get thrown into wars that they have no part in. This is what I understand the message to be in S. She often wonders how she ended up in this situation so abruptly or why she didnt realize that she was apart of the war since the army started coming into villages.
The content of this book saddens and disgusts me. To think that this went on less than 2 decades ago is scary. War is funny. It seems that all of the things that people go to war for, freedom, security, human rights; this all goes out the window during the war. In the pursuit of victory, it is alright to strip people of these basic freedoms. It makes no sese to me.
Examining these readings and watching current events convinces me that wars will never make it better and they only get worse.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Your’re right, it’s strange that despite the laws cited in the Geneva Convention or the morals and ethics inherently in our skins; freedom, security, and human rights do seem to be completely ‘thrown out the window.’ It begs the question, what are we really fighting for [if we’re not upholding the standards we claim to want].
This war occurred not long ago. But to think, the horrors of war like raping and pillaging are happening as we speak in some ethnically heated other part of the world. We might never read of it, just like we’re not fully aware of the injustices women must have suffered long ago, when historians failed to record the statistics and detailed experiences of women. That’s one reason I appreciate this book. It tells a previously untold story.
November 7th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I really enjoyed the book, S. I also got from this book that its showing us the civilian side of the war. We can see this also during the Vietnam War. Many civilians hid weapons and carried them to the Vietnamese base. Even though like Lyndsey said we make it seem like its a war against army but in reality the civilians are dragged into the war no matter what. There are times that civilians help during the war. For example if we talk about World War II we can see that while many were out fighting in foreign lands. In our land civilians kept working in creating ships, aircrafts, and vehicles in order to help the war.
I also have to agree with Lyndsey in that war has turned from just army to hurting the way of living. Terrorism is a form of hurting civilians through fear.
November 13th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I completely agree. This war occurred quite recently with incidents where tragic things happened to civilians who shouldn’t have been involved in the first place. While reading the book, I was disgusted by the torturous acts that these soldiers committed in order to humiliate the civilians and to entertain themselves. Raping innocent women and killing off the men population for fun is not acceptable. Also, forcing them to do inhumane things such as making the father rape his own son until he faints. That is as worse as the other incident where they killed off the father and son. In this case death might have even been better because now they are left with guilt and disgust. The son will always have to live with the fact that his own father raped him and the father will never forget that he raped his own son. After reading the book, I was outraged and upset since I am sure that these type of stuff really did happen and could even be happening in the world today.
November 15th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I don’t think any of the novels we’ve read so far made me as angry as S. did. It was just such a sad and degrading story and it frustrated me so much to think that while I was three years old, playing with Barbies and Play-Doh, this was actually happening to people…real people. I think the key factor of this novel is the humiliation. We’re humiliated when we trip in the street, but these women have the most personal aspects of their lives manipulated and put on display. Their sexuality becomes a toy for soldiers, and their daily bodily functions are public among the other prisoners. I just can’t imagine this sort of thing happening, but I guess I don’t have to, because it DID happen.
November 29th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Since taking this Literature of War class i have always thought the typical “fighting for freedom” saying and since taking this class I have never been, as everyone else is saying in this blog, so angry. What does “fighting for freedom”, “The few, the proud, the brave”, and any other military slogan even mean anymore? S. depicts all the civilian warfare going on as well as the complete destruction of an entire population of people. I feel that it is easy for the United States to come up with these phrases praising war because the last time a war even took place in this country was almost two hundred years ago. I do not mean to put down our country but let’s face the truth, out country does nothing but brain wash us from birth that war is a glorious thing and to die for our country is heroic. In S. this glorious heroism is no where to be found in the novel and it does not make me just angry at the ideals that our country has about war, but it also shows the ignorance people have about dying for ones country. S. talks about the mounds of bodies being burned, people being shot left and right. When did these people feel heroic?
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