World News

24534 readers

11 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

'I saw the bodies of children': Moral injury and mental strain breaking IDF soldiers (www.haaretz.com)

submitted 1 day ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

archive.is link

But on that day in Beit Lahia, something happened, says Yoni (a psyeudonym, as are the names of other interviewees). "Terrorists, terrorists," one soldier shouted. "We go into a frenzy, and I get on the Negev [a machinegun] right away and start spraying, firing hundreds of bullets. We then charged forward, and I realized it was a mistake."

There were no terrorists there. "I saw the bodies of two children, maybe 8 or 10 years old, I have no idea," recalls Yoni. "There was blood everywhere, lots of signs of gunfire, I knew it was all on me, that I did this. I wanted to throw up. After a few minutes, the company commander arrived and said coldly, as if he wasn't a human being, 'They entered an extermination zone, it is their fault, this is what war is like.'"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There's a short story by Andy Weir called "The Egg", and the premise -- spoiler alert -- is that every human being is a reincarnation of the same single soul cycling through reality over and over inhabiting each person. So every person on Earth -- parents, their children, bosses and employees, your best friend, your lover, your rival, every politician and their opponent and every voter too are all fundamentally the same person interacting with themselves.

And if one can get past their hatred for members of a genocidal cult, it's a profound metaphor. If we appreciate all creatures as linked, Every Nazi was unwittingly murdering their own brother. Every American in Vietnam didn't realize that the person on the other end of the bullet was secretly their own father. And this doesn't just hold for the bad guys: every American who shot a Nazi was killing a version of themselves.

War is hell. The Israelis got sold a lie, that it was possible to poison a hand that you didn't like, as if poison can be isolated to one part of a whole. The mission has been one of mutual death this whole time, and so many of them only discover it after they sold their soul.

I want peace so badly. Not vengeance, even for the most wicked. I understand why people want vengeance, but all I want is peace, equality, and dignity universally. I feel like I'm watching a civilization kill itself.

[–] innerwar@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

Hear hear, thank you for the recommendation