The Real War 1939-1945, by Paul Fussell (1989)
Very interesting. I do think it's vitally important to acknowledge the real nature of war, whose best witnesses are those who actually lived through it, the actual reality of it, not generals or politicians conducting the war from the safety of their offices.<p>There's a real question as to whether war ought to be shown in all its gory, butcher's window horror in the media. On the one hand, it's important people realise what war is actually like, on the other, it's easy to get desensitised to this stuff.<p>Personally, I've (regrettably) seen several images which indicate the reality of these things on shock sites, etc., and after a short while was rather desensitised. The images are so horrible that I just couldn't even begin to register the reality of it on any scale the way somebody who has actual experienced it would.<p>I really don't know whether showing these images would <i>really</i> get people to see the utter, utter insanity of war and the cost to these ordinary human beings, or whether people would just get desensitised.<p>It's an important question that ought to be explored.