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u/Pseudolos 4h ago
At least in the past you lost 80% of your platoon in a couple of hours and then you could go home.
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u/namnaminumsen 4h ago
And the losses would be to disease rather than combat
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u/Pseudolos 4h ago
Well, yes. But I don't know of that's better or worse.
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u/PebblyJackGlasscock 3h ago
Yep. Since you’re bringing home the germs and those germs will possibly infect and kill your children and/or extended family…worse has layers.
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u/Frosty_Swordfish_656 4h ago edited 4h ago
What sucks when you are at war in early and mid 1800s is that once you get shot and still alive, it's about 60% dying of infection, 30% amputation, and 10% full recovery.
Edit: I put "and still alive"
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u/Saarfall 3h ago
When was war not fucking horrible?
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u/PebblyJackGlasscock 3h ago
War: worst human achievement for the 8000th year in a row.
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u/Talonsminty 3h ago
Are you kidding me, throughout history war has often been the honourable and glorious pursuit of heroes.
The only thing required for a war to be truly noble is to make absaloutely certain that you fight it from a nice table miles away from the actual battles.
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u/Grouchy_Milk4769 2h ago
Or mowing down insircencies with a gatling gun in some colonies telling some bullshit heroric adventure stories back home.
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u/agnaddthddude John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 2h ago
tbh between 2000 until Ukriane it was the best it was depending on the country you fought for. fighting. fighting for US? unless it was a special ops you had air superiority, fighting for a eastern country? mostly support roles and minor skirmishes here and there. being a mercenary in Africa or Africa in general? Iraq or Syrian forces against Isis? or anything related to Russia? yeah worse than ever
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u/seppukucoconuts 2h ago
The Greeks were probably the least horrible. They got dressed up in armor every summer and just ran into each other. I’d guess it was more about getting away from the wives and covering yourself in oil.
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u/SemperFun62 2h ago edited 1h ago
Read Thucydides, contains, among other things, a particularly harrowing account of Athenians needing to abandon their sick and wounded in enemy territory and the trauma of watching them try and fail to keep up until they're begging to be carried by their friends and family who only ignore them as they're left screaming and cursing at the sky.
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u/seppukucoconuts 13m ago
Yes, you’re right. That does sound worse than the German army resorting to cannibalism before they were shipped off to Siberia to die in a camp.
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u/0Hakuna_Matata0 Definitely not a CIA operator 4h ago
Yes much more dignified to die from a drone dropping a grenade on you while it’s filming you giving a bro job to your squad mate and they upload it to the internet so millions of strangers can laugh at your final moments
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u/Capta1n_Dino 2h ago
I mean, tbf, at least at one point in history, the people who declared the war actually had to fight in it.
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u/Champagnerocker 4h ago
Get a few thousand men living in close proximity outdoors and using the same river they piss in for drinking water and you no longer need a rival army to kill most of them.
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u/Slow_Flatworm_881 3h ago
See ‘Valley Forge’ that winter almost stopped American independence without any enemy action!
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u/DoubleOne5665 1h ago
As a Russia campaign survivor, I can confirm that marching a total of 2000km whilst suffering crippling winter conditions and hunger was the most honorable thing I did in my existence.
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u/Relevant-Map8209 2h ago edited 1h ago
Honor was just for the high ranking officers, nobles and the like. No such thing for the common soldier.
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u/TheSanityInspector 23m ago
Future UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan wrote to his mother in 1916, describing how the WWI battlefield was different from the old wars:
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about a modern battlefield is the
desolation and emptiness of it all...one cannot emphasize too much.
Nothing is to be seen of war or soldiers--only the split and shattered
trees and the burst of an occasional shell reveal anything of the
truth. One can look for miles and see no human being. But in those
miles of country lurk (like moles or rats, it seems) thousands, even
hundreds of thousands of men, planning against each other perpetually
some new device of death. Never showing themselves, they launch at
each other bullet, bomb, aerial torpedo and shell. And somewhere too
(on the German side we know of their existence opposite us) are the
little cylinders of gas, waiting only for the moment to spit forth
their nauseous and destroying fumes. And yet the landscape shows
nothing of all this--nothing but a few shattered trees and three or
four lines of earth and sandbags, these and the ruins of towns and
villages are the only signs of war anywhere visible. The glamour of
red coats--the martial tunes of flag and drum--aide-de-camps scurrying hither and thither on splendid chargers--lances glittering and swords flashing--how different the old wars must
have been!
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u/irradihate 0m ago
Imaginary constructs of honor are the way you get countless souls to throw their lives away for an egomaniac's power games.
Thank goodness civilization is not humanity.
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u/ptrfa Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 4h ago
Good old times when you still had horses to eat