I feel like it really captures the hell of being in a tin can going in a line while planes and flak riddle you. The dichotomy between days of peace with the chance to flirt and drink interspersed with sheer terror, freezing cold, a screaming man in the ball turret.
The bombing campaign was no walk in the park and the boys who blew up the factories of the German war machine were certainly brave as fuck.
What did Parenti say about war costs? I’m only familiar with his anti imperialism stuff.
I’ll need to rearch to find the clipping, that sounds like a nice ironic moment to screen cap
THEIR suicidal attacks, OUR brave self sacrificial heroes
Gotcha, didn’t realize he originated that as well.
In a sense, war is all about acceptable losses to achieve the objective. You can rarely at most take/destroy a contested objective without losses, it’s about managing the losses so it’s a net gain on the larger board. People are going to die, just minimize it when able (if it’s worth it).
The raid in (episode 3/4 I think) where they decide to not call off the bombing run after the fog prevents the escort is a good example of this. They got sacrificed. It was the right call if it led to the ball bearing factory being destroyed.
The propaganda comes into play where “we couldn’t have known/they bravely knew and chose to fly/ect” vs uncaring command/cruel calculus/ ect
War doesn’t care about language, that’s how they are won.