War torn

Last night, I watched a movie called Black Hawk Down, with which I am sure that many of you are familiar. It is a harrowing tale of horrors and terrors the like of which I hope that I will never witness and is based on events that occurred in Mogadishu, Somalia when US soldiers found themselves surrounded by militia forces and badly equipped to defend themselves.

I am finding it more and more difficult to watch graphic war movies, I don't know why. Before I could separate what I saw on screen from the reality that soldiers today experience, but these days, when Hollywood takes me on a trip into the battlefields, I can't seem to stop thinking about those men and women who are far flung and daily in danger. When others might cheer the explosions on screen, I find myself on the verge of tears.

Throughout history we have battered and butchered each other in our battles over land, money, women and ultimately, power. Small men with large egos have commanded the weaker and worthier to march into blood baths on a whim. Others have fought for freedom and for the pursuit of their ideals. Whether the ends were petty or vital, the violence and the horror were the same. There is no getting away from it, we are cruel beasts when we get going.

World War II was the deadliest conflict of all time (to date). Over 60 million people were killed during this truly global conflict.

World War I was essentially a European war. Children as young as 14 entered the trenches and fought as men. Initially, many thought of this war in a romantic sense, believing that they would be tested and have the opportunity to show their valour. They died in their thousands, moan down by gunfire, gassed and starved and frozen.

The Vietnam war has been the dominant conflict in the American consciousness for over 40 years. It was a horrific waste of human life that rocked East Asia even more than it did the United States. The number of military deaths between 1959 and 1975 is widely debated and the final figure depends on how the count is made, for example some figures include the South Vietnames forces killed in the final campaign, others do not. In 1995, the Vietnamese government reported that its military forces, inluding NLF, suffered 1.1 million military deaths and 2 million civilian casualties.

Icasualties.org reports the tally of deaths from 2003-2010 amongst the Iraq coalition (US, UK and other) at 4715. For Afghanistan, icasualties.com totals the number of dead at 1759.

Closer to home, between 1969 and 2001, 3,526 people were killed as a result of the Northern Irish troubles, according to the Sutton Index of Deaths.

These are just numbers and these numbers apply only to those who were killed; many more were injured or suffered mental breakdowns in the aftermath of their experiences.

War is everything counter to life's meaning. It destroys life quite literally and by quashing the spirit of otherwise perfectly good men and women.

It frustrates me when I see the leaders of our cruelest conflicts portrayed on screen as being inhuman monsters. Cruelty is part of our make up, it is all we can do to keep it at bay. In terrible circumstances we would probably all surprise ourselves by what we are capable of. Some people are capable of extremes even when they do not need to rely on such methods for survival.

If there is one very simple lesson that we should learn, but don't seem capable of listening to, it must be this: be peaceful.