Maintaining peace in hostile places<\/p>\n
The letter by David Jardine (The Jakarta Post, April 30),
\ntriggered some thoughts that have been haunting me for a few
\nyears. What I feel is that while there are both good and bad
\nsoldiers, what is crystal-clear is that the job they are
\nentrusted to do while dealing with civilians is unenviable and
\nmost difficult.<\/p>\n
For one thing, they may face rebels who outnumber them many
\ntimes over, irrespective of whether you choose to call them
\nterrorists or freedom-fighters, depending on which side of the
\nfence you are. The soldiers may have superior weapons, but unlike
\nin a war, they do not know whom to aim these weapons at! The
\nrebels may kill thousands of innocent people and get away with
\nit, but let a soldier kill one single innocent person and the
\nmedia will descend on him like a ton of bricks! On top of that, they are always susceptible to attack and to
\nbeing killed by a sniper choosing to shoot from behind an
\ninnocent pedestrian! So when a soldier doesn't know how long he
\nhas before his life could be snuffed out and makes some mistakes
\nby way of knee-jerk reactions, that deserves some sympathetic
\nconsideration. These knee-jerk reactions occur without the
\nknowledge of their top commanders because most of the time they
\naren't there and there is simply no time to communicate with
\nthem! What is shown on TV or what is published in the print media as
\npart of news coverage may be part of the truth, but not the whole
\ntruth, because when one talks of \"press freedom\", it generally
\nrefers to the \"freedom of press barons\" or editors and not
\nfreedom of reporters, whose convictions or sympathies may or may
\nnot be the same as those of the owners of a particular TV channel
\nor newspaper. The history of mankind is largely written by the victors. One
\nshould have no doubt about what the story of the Second World War
\nwould have been had Hitler won it. Or who would have been tried
\nand convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. In my opinion, while armchair theorization is fine, the reality
\nof life and death faced by the soldiers in very hostile civilian
\nenvironments should not be overlooked and their actions should be
\nviewed in a more comprehensive way.<\/p>\n
K. B. KALE, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/maintaining-peace-in-hostile-places-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }