Flutterby™! : Willing to die

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Willing to die

2001-11-29 16:47:20+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

A lot of people have wondered at the culture that breeds men willing to die to inflict damage on their enemies. Some have referenced the desperation of poverty and political alienation. Some claim religious fanatacism makes it possible. On July 1st, 1916, 57,400 British men marched into German machine gun fire, to their deaths.

"The British moved forward in line after line, dressed as if on parade; not a man wavered or broke ranks; but minute by minute the ordered lines melted away under the deluge of high explosives, shrapnel, rifle, and machine-gun fire. The splendid troops shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world."

Techno-geek moment: The machine gun used against them, said to account for 90% of the casualties, was the Machineengewehr 08 designed by American Hiram Maxim.

[ related topics: Politics Sociology WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:27+00 by: petronius

At the end of the battle For Saipan during WW2, some thousands of Japanese civilians leapt or were pushed off a steep cliff, rather than surrender to the US Army, whom they were told would inflict unimaginable atrocities upon them. This resolution was a major argument for dropping the fission bomb on Japan, rather than a D-Day type invasion. It was expected that the entire Japanese population would fight us for every inch of the home islands, inflicting unacceptable casulties on our troops.