Archdukes and the Internet: Amateurs at War

As I sat here, like many people (knowing the names or not) making (hopefully unsuccessful) parallels between the Israeli soldier captured/kidnapped in Gaza and Archduke Ferdinand, I thought about stories and accounts of how captured sailors in the Napoleonic Wars (and immediately conjured more parallels between England and France, Israel and fill-in-the-neighbor) often became friends across the battlefield, how captains of ships entertained their enemies and treated them with an almost competitive respect.

Fear not, I shall attempt to keep my sentences shorter for the rest of this entry. Though, think of it spoken aloud in a musing sort of voice rather than typed into a rather persnickety keyboard.

I came to wonder about the brutality with which prisoners are treated in war today. Let us not fool ourselves. A clean cell, religious literature, three square meals a day, access to lawyers and human rights activists does not constitute brutal treatment of enemy combatants. Brutality is beheading, dismemberment, dragging of mutilated bodies through muddy streets.

I could go off on a tangent here and wonder what news stories would be reported about brutality and humane treatment if the war, instead of being fought in Iraq, were fought on the streets of the Eastern Seaboard. However, I shan’t sport with your intelligence.

It occurred to me (and here is where I introduce one last seemingly random thread before producing my organized braid) that there is another related parallel to the outcry that many feel about the onset of the Internet and the apparent anarchy and freedom to information it provides. The outcry comes from professionals who fear for their jobs, or at least for the influence and power that is being eroded away. I do not blame them, it is only natural to feel this way. However, I am not going to stop my freedoms and liberties so they may experience a feeling of control over my destiny. They claim that it is unlikely the average Joe (by whom I assume they mean me, and though I take that as a compliment, I doubt they intend to flatter) will be able to sift through the seemingly limitless information and recognize what is information and what is opinion.

The problem is that we do that all too well, and that’s why we are turning to the Internet now, dopes.

Does use of the word “dopes” brand me as an illiterate and dangerous, unprofessional blogger? Well, I certainly don’t get paid for this outlet.

How do I tie this all together? Archdukes and captured Israeli soldiers, the loss of dignity and decency in the way enemies are treated, and the almost anarchistic influence the Internet has on global society? With the sentence I wished to write all by itself, without this lengthy blog entry to support and explain it (though laying out ones thought process is somehow gratifying).

Terrorism is what one gets when amateurs are given the professional tools of war.