Well, the Escapists have gone philisophical today huh?
Well, it depends on what you mean by "war".
If you mean the weapons, tactics, and motivations behind it, then certainly war has changed. We've gone from fighting as (Insert religion here) in holy cursades/jihads to fighting as great international alliances against great international alliances to individual or small groups of nations fighting religious or idealogical extremists in wars that cost billions of (Insert national currency here) and thousands lives without any real concrete achievments to show for it.
We've moved out of the age of beating each other over the head with sticks and rocks to lopping off heads wis swords and axes (and mounting them as grotesce trophys on spears and pointy sticks) to now where we pull a trigger from 100 or so meters and watch as the head of our target becomes an expanding cloud of blood, bone, flesh and brain matter.
We've evolved from calling in the cavelry to fireing batteries of cannon to calling in multi-billion dollar air craft to put a 500 pound bomb within 2 meters of our target.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same.
We have always looked upon soldiers with a kind of romantic fantasy. We shout words of patriatism from the highest peaks of the world and challenge any who would question our athority. And when the time comes that our nation should find it self upon the eve of battle with some distant, shadowy, and unquestionably evil enemy, we gather our courage, say goodbye to our friends and our families, and leave our homes to enlist and fight alongside our likeminded brothers.
Then we reach the field upon which the great and glorious battle shall be waged, our hearts filled with the fires of righousness of our cause, our backs bearing the load of our nations pride, and our arms hefting the weapons with which we have been trained to kill the enemy. Upon that field we charge into the waiting arm of the foe, confident in our ability to slay him in pitched combat.
And it is then and there that we come to have our first true taste of the nature or our grim business. All around us, we hear the roar of the battle and the sounds of our weapons upon those of the enemy. Amoungst the cacophany, starting softly at first but rising as time passes, can be heard the sounds of death and suffering. Men young and old, scream and cry as they are cast from the realm of mortals into the oblivion of death. We hear the wounded moans of those that await the sudden sting of the Reaper's blade. Suddenly it is clear that the souds of suffering and death have eclipsed those of battle, and that more now lie upon the ground, wounded and dead, than remain on their feet.
We see the broken and mutalated bodies of foe and friend alike strewn across the land now a quagmire of blood and gore. We see the shadows of the great flocks of black birds who did gather here as they fly upon the bloody winds above our heads. We see men on both sides, waging desperate battles, not for king and country, but for their very survival.
In this way, war has not changed.
Nor, I fear, shall it ever.
