IDF Soldier Recounts Harrowing, Heroic War Story Of Killing 8-Month-Old Child : theonion

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 137 points 1 year ago

From 2018 lmao. This entire article is a gold mine

said Saadon to the group of awed soldiers, describing the chills that went up and down his spine as he realized that all he had was his M16 assault rifle and some tear gas to defend himself against the unarmed Palestinian family standing only dozens of yards away. “I could see the whites of the baby’s eyes and hear her terrifying cries, and I knew it was either her or me. And this wasn’t some newborn infant, you know? This was a baby who could probably sit up independently. I was scared, but I acted quickly to throw that tear gas at her and her older sister. And who knows how many lives I saved

[-] Rune_Walsh@lemmy.world 54 points 1 year ago

Well that story is sadly evergreen.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago

That's a fucking hilarious title.

[-] Zrybew@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

Merica is the only country that makes movies about how traumatised they got from invading other countries

[-] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 18 points 1 year ago

I get that this comment is hyperbole, but it's not entirely true. The trauma experienced by U.S. military personnel, and processed through movies, is primarily moral injury, knowing that they went to war and did terrible things unjustly, unnecessarily, based on lies. (Contrast this with the trauma experienced by the protagonists in The Best Years of Our LIves, veterans of what is seen as a just, necessary war. They struggle with life after war, not guilt about what they did in it.) There are movies from other countries which process the same sort of trauma, such as the Israeli film Waltz with Bashir, made by a former IDF soldier processing his role in the 1982 Lebanon War.

Point is, 'merica doesn't have mentally-weak, or entitled, soldiers compared to other nations, it just gets into a lot of morally-indefensible wars. (And Israel causes moral injury to many of its people with its morally-indefensible wars, too.)

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

James Jones' Whistle (the third book in his sort-of trilogy which includes From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line) is also about the post-battle trauma experienced by WWII combat veterans. It is remarkably like all the Vietnam books and movies - perhaps the moral aspect of whether the war was just or not is less important than the fact that war is a very fucked up experience.

[-] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

Ooh, thanks for the comment! I was only familiar with From Here to Eternity, and looked up the other two. If I may try to expand and clarify my comment, absolutely, the trauma experienced in war can destroy the people, and it damages everybody. My grandfather, for example, served in the infantry in Italy, and, that's all we know. He never talked about it to anybody that I know of. I'm talking about a particular kind of trauma and the way that people process it, which honestly, I can't quite define, except to say that it's the result of moral injury, and it's part of the joke about Americans returning to the former war zone to make movies about how much killing people there traumatized them.

The summary of Whistle reinforces this, saying it's about four wounded veterans and their struggles to adjust to life at home. A good example of the type of story that I'm talking about from WWII is Slaughterhouse Five, and the way that the destruction of Dresden affected Vonnegut so profoundly. I guess a undercurrent of guilt would be one of the defining elements.

[-] Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

All quiet on the western front is another non American book about essentially this same thing, too.

[-] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

You're confusing nations with people. People get traumatized, whether or not their role in a given war/aggression was legitimate

[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

The TTDF(Time Traveling Defense Forces) have high confidence that that baby was the next Hitler. That or the kid born in the hospital bed next door. It's not an exact science.

[-] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

The real Hitler was the genocide we did along the way...

[-] Land_Strider@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Leveled the whole city for good measure.

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Those tunnels could hold infrastructure or terrorists, can't be sure, have to be safe.

[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The Onion's changed ever since they got bought out by the Sun God, Apollo.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

???

[-] LapGoat@pawb.social 10 points 1 year ago

Apollo's godly domains include prophecy

[+] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world -51 points 1 year ago

This just makes me sad, 1/10, not a funny oniony story.

[-] derphurr@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago

Because it isn't satire.

Adam Samer al-Ghoul, 8, was shot in the head and Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa, 15, died after he was shot in the chest.

And this is in refugee camps in the West Bank, not the main action in Gaza.

At least 242 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. More than 2,750 have been injured.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

It was when the article was written. In 2018.

No one online does even basic research anymore, like even clicking the link. Everyone just reads the headline and makes assumptions.

[-] chocolateo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah guys be sure to read the whole The Onion article, not just the headlines, if you want to stay informed

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The poster I responded to was clearly taking the article at face value, even ignoring the satirical nature, it's a 5 year old article either way and not written about current events.

A post trying to conflate a 5 year old satire article and current events is factually wrong and should be called out, even if the source is obviously satire.

[-] Doorbook@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I would disagree because it proves the fact that these actions we see today is in align with historical trends.

[+] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world -31 points 1 year ago

Yes, but it's not funny now, so why is someone posting it? It's incredibly poor taste .

[-] DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online 36 points 1 year ago

Gallows humor. It's sad that the general events are real but the mocking way the article and headline are written allows the reader to chuckle through the horror.

[-] 11181514@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

How is it in poor taste? Just because it's real? The faux empathy for the IDF is literally the joke. It's saying "killing babies bad". What part of that do you have an issue with?

[-] BigPotato@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Yes but something happened after this article was written, why haven't the time lords gone back and unmade the article so I don't have to feel uncomfortable about the fact that this has all been going on for a long time and the world has been silent about it?

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

They tried

[-] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s not meant to be funny. It’s meant to be shocking and lead your outrage in a quest to disprove the core tenet, only to be forced to confront the awful element/actual reality the article was satirizing.

The “oooof that’s hits close to home” reaction is the entire point

[-] rainerloeten@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Sauce pls

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago

Saddest thing is it's from 2018

[-] TheCrispyDud@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

Sometimes The Onion needs to make you cry to remind you what it really is.

[-] Heir_Of_Isildur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The onion writers are so goddamn good