Sacrifice Of Thousands Of Men For Words example essay topic

The Tragedy of war. Two armies organize and prepare for battle; soldiers, armed to the teeth and equipped with the most modern of equipment embark on a journey of death and destruction. Both sides intoxicated with nationalistic pride conjured up by propaganda with ideologies and doctrines etched in stone where men would sacrifice life and everything they cherish for mere words. Sound familiar? This scenario has been rehearsed countless times in the texts of history books and the cauldrons of the past.

Thousands of men, striped of their individuality and immersed into a massive, cohesive beast with an insatiable appetite are subject to tortures unimaginable. This beast, the war machine: an rational, insane, illogical being capable of complete and utter destruction. It has no regard for the individual that has been assimilated. Most scholars would argue that that loss of individuality is what makes war tragic, however the tragedy of war goes beyond this, those individuals experience pain, suffering, death, pity, paralyzing fear, most bear witness to their own mortality. War creates feelings such as pity, pathos, sorrow, greif, torment, agony. In war sacrifice for an ideal or cause is common, the struggle for survival is instinctive and most, delay an enevatible end.

Who has the right to decide who lives and who dies, which country is to be flattened, the loss of innocence and the question of what might have been. From the dying soldier on the beeches of normandy to the peasant being executed, the tragedy of war is far reaching and the effects can be sensed and experienced by all: poets, painters, writers, laymen, bearucrats, it has been the subject of countless writings, poems, songs and paintings. As we. the solders of the 26th mechanized infantry batali on began to dismount and fix bayonets, Soviet Yaks can be seen in the distance. The distinctive screech of a diving arch can be heard, the sound sends shivers down our spines. We run for the nearest foxholes and shelter but this effort is in vain. With the d roping of the heavy ordanace their came the hollow feeling of despair, the resulting explosions tear flesh from bones, steel from frames and minds from men.

As the Yaks retreat the men begin to regroup and prepare for battle; most ignore the numerous amounts of dead and wounded, there is not enough of med. supplies to go around; those lucky men are left to rot or are shot by their commanding officers out of pity. In our briefing we were told that our mighty air-force, the luttfaffe, would neutralize all enemy artilery, this was an obvious fallacy, because at this moment the sweet sound of Soviet artilery belching out it's lovely, indiscriminate tickets out of hell. At this moment those 84 mm begin to fall with insane accu arcy. Some laughed as our Cp (command or Hq) was hit first, then our medical reserves, and of course it would not have been complete without them striking our ammunition depot, the following explosion sent hundreds of thousands of rounds of OUR ammunition into our own lines killing men left and right.

But we continued, we of course were the spearhead of the central t hurst in the 6th ver macht army, the pride of all pure blooded German peoples as we were so often told, obviously we could not turn back. With no air cover or artilery suppression fire the Soviets had a field day. By the time we had reached the forward contact position our unit was at 46% operational capacity, but we continued with sinister enthusiasm. The Soviet Snipers would target our highest ranks and would work their way down, it seemed they had an intense love for our radio operators limiting our command and control capabilities then see us frolic on the battlefield with no direction or objective.

By night fall the battle reached a stalemate, us superior Germans and captured 1 of 17 objectives and a front no larger then 9 city blocks. We had failed, everyone knew, morale was low, possibly lower then our food stocks. 1300 of our finest now occupied the Soviet landscape as statues, in graves or all over area in tiny pieces. All this for a last attempt at victory, outnumbered and our supply lines stretched to the limit any rational person would have ordered a tactical retreat, regroup and rebuild, this attack did not make any sense, but whatever the fu her said was right, he was always right, that bohemian corporal was always right. "The Power of the Gods resting in the hands of a few men". Men with the power over life and death.

These mere mortals aspire to power to implement their consulted plans and ideas. As in the case of Germany in 1933 when the rational and logical people where over thrown in a silent revolution of ideas. Adolf Hitler, a man who irrevocably changed the world was one of these men. He be lived that the German people where superior in every way possible, and he would prove this to the world at any cost. He controled the masses with propaganda, he propagated ideas of eugenics, nationalism, aryan superiority and he glorified war.

The individual no longer existed in Germany after 1933. As the mighty German army was beat back by the Russian unslaught, countless Germans lost their lives. The above excerpt was taken from an officers diary during the counter attack at Kursk. It is hard to put into words, but the tragedy of what happened is beyond the people in our society, perhaps even the people who ordered the operation. Ordinary men, whose thoughts are corrupted, they become brainwashed and mindless. Striped of their humanity they no longer bear the title Human, these people were once thinking, loving, and rational human beings, but now they have become barbarians and killers.

The apparent question lingers, why? why does this happen. Men; du humanized, and automated, die for causes unknown. Words, mere words, taken and turned into weapons. Senators, dictators, politicians all make these wars happen, while the common man bares the responsibility of excogitating them, they suffer through the pain and agony. For example the German soldier was told that their airforce would neutrilze the Sovet artilery but it was a fallacy, the artilery was left to do it's job: to annihalte the enemy. Words vs. words, that is the tragedy of war in this selection, ideologies against ideologies and 40 million people died for this futile struggle.

In 1937 the world was on the verge of devouring itself for the second time in the first half of the 20th century. Spain; a divided nation lay in the midst of a civil war. The rebels, lead by Francisco Franco had the country by the throat, with the aid of the Nazis, victory was in sight for this disgruntled General. In the north eastern section of Spain lay a small city named Guernica. An elite wing of the Nazi airforce was attached to the Spanish rebels, this wing, the condor wing was given the opportunity to train and prepare for future wars.

It was the proving ground for the blitzkreig tactics used against Britian and France 2 years later. In the early morning hours the inhabitants of Guernica awaken d to a world of hell. The indiscriminate bombing of civilians was the headlines on all the worlds major newspapers. Pablo Picasso transposed the destruction into a painting, an image of pain and brutality that depicts the fascist bombing of the town. Can this painting be classified as a tragedy? The answer ia yes.

The painting is a general meditation on suffering, and its symbols are archaic: the gored and speared horse (the Spanish Republic) the bull (german air force) towering over the bereaved, shrieking woman. This city had no statregic value, they bombed it to test the potency and effectiveness of their air power. They tested their killing machines by killing innocent people so they could kill at a later date. This is the tragedy that Picasso captured in his painting, the destruction of innocence with the towering, invincible force that the civilians had no defense against to enable the killers to kill better. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Russias defeat over Napolean during the Napoleonic wars; a lucrative commision was granted to Tchaikovsky to compose an overture in recognition of this 'great' victory. The celebration of death and destruction.

The death of countless men now celebrated as if this blatant murder of precious life was a good thing. As you listen to the overture a strange crescendo can be felt building throughout your body, a frenzy of emotion begins to overflow, like the perverbial pot left to boil over on a stove. It is hard for any writer to put into words, however the most appropriate word that I can think of would be adrenal ized, the feeling of power and the irresistable urge to 'bust skulls' is undeniable, the feelings created by the overture, the glorifying of war is what makes this piece so tragic. To take mans best, to do mans worst: music, regarded as one of mans most crowning achievements used to inspire mans worst. Tragic, but true. No matter how much we progress as a race; its all in vain because the desire to crush our neighbors is inherent.

This tarnish a pon society has impeded our development since the beginning of recorded history, fueled by our instincts man is nothing more than Barbara ins in expensive suits. The assimilation of the individual, the sacrifice of thousands of men for words. The utilization of mans best to do mans worse. To take away innocence from men women and children who could not understand what is happening and why. These concepts make war tragic. We must learn to abandon this barbarism.

We must learn not to be taken in by politicians and be rational and critical beings... What if they gave a war, and nobody came? What did u learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that war is not so bad I learned about the great ones we have had We fought in Germany and in France And I am someday to get my chance That's what I learned in school today That's what I learned in school. -A song by Tom Paxton.