I just found this hearty, compassionate treatise on why blind war is the best war. And, yes, Blackfive is a very popular milblog.
"It is always wrong to take the risk of killing a child, whether we do it or they do," she will say.
"Why so?" I ask.
"Because it endangers the innocent," she replies.
"If that is the reason," I answer, "then you are wrong. It is best that we bomb without fear."
Her eyes grow wide. "You are mad," she says.
"Not so," I answer. "Consider: when the enemy seeks to kill our child to motivate us to surrender to his will, is it not because he believes that the danger to the children will move our hearts?"
"It is," she must agree.
"And when he hides among children," I add, "why? Children do little to deflect artillery. Must it not be because he knows that we — we ourselves — fear for the children, even his children?"
She nods, silently.
"Then it is proven," I say. "It is our love of these innocents that endangers them. If we did not care if children died, they would be in little danger."
"That cannot be," she replies in anger.
"But it is so," I contest. "If we did not care if our children died, they would not be targets. There would be no reason to target them, because we would not be moved by their deaths.
"If we did not care if their children died," I add, "there would be no reason to clutter military emplacements with their presence. If it were not that we are horrified by the deaths of children, the enemy’s children would be clear of all places of battle — because they are, except for the fact that we love them, a hindrance."
She bites her lip.
"Of course, we cannot cut out our hearts," I tell her. "Nor should we — as we wish to remain men, and good men, rather than monsters. Yet it is our love that is the chief danger to the innocent now — to our own innocents, and theirs also."
Read the rest here.
