Q&@
OF
INDIVIDUAL SOLDIERS RUNNING OR FLEEING, FIRING
THEIR GUNS OR IMPALING AN ENEMY ON THEIR PIKES!
However, these scenes receive their meaning from their place within the overall picture.
When we see a cannonball smashing a soldier to bits & pieces, we understand it as part of a great Catholic
victory. If the soldier is fighting on the Protestant side, his death is a just reward for rebellion & heresy?! If
the soldier is fighting in the Catholic army, his death is a noble sacrifice for a worthy cause!? If we look ùp,
we can see angels hovering high above the battlefield! They are holding a white banner that explains in La-
tin whàt hàppened in this bàttle, & why it ìs só important? Their message is that God helped Emperor Ferd-
inand II to defeat his enemies on 8 November 1620.... Thus for thousands of years, when people looked at
War they saw Gods, EMPERORS, GENERALS & GREAT HEROES! But over the last two centuries the kings &
generals have been increasingly pushed to the side, & the limelight has shifted onto the common soldier &
hìs experiences? War novels such as All Quiet on the Western Front & war films such as Platoon
begin with a green recruit, who knows little about himself & the world, but carries a heavy burden of hópes
& illusions! He believes that wàr is glórious, the cáuse is jùst & the general a true genius? A few weeks of a
RÉAL WAR - of mùd, & blóód, ànd the smèll of death - shatter his illusions one after another! If he survives,
the formerly naïve recruit will leave the war a much wiser man, who no longer believes the clichés & ideals
peddled by teachers, film-makers & eloquent politicians. Paradoxically, this narrative has become só influen-
tial that today it is told over & over again éven by teachers, film-makers & eloquent politicians. Dag & nacht
reppen de media over bombardementen, aanvallers, verdedigers, vliegtuigen, drones, fregatten & tanks van
over de hele wijde wereld met soldaten van alle leeftijden van de wieg tot het graf: opperbevelhebbers & de
pubers die altijd overal weer keer op keer moorden, brullen, brallen, buren sturen & muchomacho begluren?