Even after a war ends, it is not a given that all will be revealed. Certain 'sensitive' information will be buried in secret files. Prominent figures may want to 'enhance' the role they played in the outcome, or play it down. Everybody and their dog had 'Good Intentions'. If they made mistakes, it really wasn't their fault. They only followed orders. They had been ill informed. The plan was flawless, but the people ordered to execute it were amateurs.
Books, documentaries and movies about wars need to be 'attractive', or they won't sell. The amount of 'spin' depends on the target-audience. The end of the story may be total fantasy. A great 'Netflix'-production, a true 'Bestseller', 'Apocalypse Now'. Little wonder that the entertainment industry is one of the pillars of the 'Warparty'. The boom-years for that section of society were during the 'War to Destroy South East Asia', while the 'War Against The Rag-Heads' is also producing a flurry of movies and books, keeping a whole industry of 'bloggers' and 'vloggers' busy. Likewise the war between NATO and Russia, and the present 'Troubles' in the 'Middle East' are money-makers.
Clearly it is not fair to lay the responsibility for war on the shoulders of the people who comment on it, on either side, or who exploit the lust of the people to see, or read about war. And if their contributions are informative, and stay away from spreading lies and propaganda-pure-and-simple, they earn the money they make. My own position is peculiar in more than one way. I'm not cheering for this or that party, and I pay all the bills myself, while investing plenty of valuable time in writing about the ongoing wars, hoping to stop that extremely distasteful and destructive way to solve our differences.
Contrary to many people around me, I spend little time on 'Netflix', or going to the movies, while the books I prefer are 'Non-Fiction'. Yet I do like series or movies with an 'edge', bringing 'excitement', often involving crime, armed conflict, or dangerous adventures. But, as I've mentioned previously, I'm no fan of the 'snuff-stuff' out there, the 'War-Porn', and I'm always wondering if there is a 'spill-over' effect, where people lose track of what is real, and what is fantasy. One of the last fiction novels I read, I guess, was 'Less than Nothing' written by Bret Easton Ellis. About boredom among well-to-do youngsters in LA, getting a kick from obtaining real 'snuff-movies'. That level of emptiness inspired me to fight decadence, and not embrace it.
These days I wonder if restoring sanity is no longer within our reach. Are we no longer capable to restrain ourselves when tempted? There is this gruesome story of an SS-soldier, not exactly a 'Mother Theresa', who had to puke when he saw what an ordinary Polish citizen had done to his Jewish neighbour. For years they had been neighbours, without any real incidents. But upon the arrival of the Nazi's this unremarkable Polish man found it in him to butcher his fellow man. Chop him to pieces. What kind of Demon had been hiding inside this man? Had it always been there? Who inspired him?
Since I launched my 'In English' extension to my Dutch language blog, I've attracted millions of 'page visits', with peaks of over ten thousand 'unique visits' on a single day for both the Dutch and English language blogs taken together. Like everybody else with a similar blog, or vlog, many of them with a far larger audience, I wonder about who you are, and what it is you take away from what I'm writing. Ultimately it is not my responsibility, but I sure hope none of you release their own Demon based on something I wrote to go on a rampage. On the contrary! What I'm trying to do here, is to let you see 'the inevitable' result of choices made by people with no *real* skin in the game, and how their planning and scheming is ruining your future and mine. You may not be a 'Mother Theresa', who reportedly was not exactly an Angel herself, but don't blow it!