To hear of a thousand deaths in war is terrible, and we 'know' that it is. But as it registers on our hearts, it is not more terrible than one death fully imagined.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Even one death is horrible.
Nowadays it is the fashion to emphasize the horrors of the last war. I didn't find it so horrible. There are just as horrible things happening all round us today, if only we had eyes to see them.
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.
The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.
There were almost 11,000 American soldiers killed in Germany in April of 1945, the last full month of the war. That's almost as many as died in June, 1944. Right to the very end, it was absolutely brutal.
Every civilian's death diminishes us, collectively.
We have to keep in mind that it's not just about the numbers of people who died; it's also the manner which many of these victims met their deaths.
The disasters of war can be infinitely eerie and poignant.