Thankfulness

I'm reading the a "Short History of Everything"- style book on World War II called "The Second World War," by Anthony Beavor. It's not a perfect book, but for someone that hasn't made a practice of studying the history of this time (mainly the Cold War and times more recent), it's a fascinating read.

It's also morbidly effective at conveying the horrors of war. Like many Americans, I saw "Saving Private Ryan," but the horror of that beachfront scene cannot convey the deliberate starvation of civilians, the accidental bombing of cities, the human rights violations/mass rapes, the frozen bodies that lost the struggle against waist-high snow, and the horrors of disease or dismemberment that visited the war. The striking thing is that these horrors were everywhere. We know about Stalingrad's famine, and the abuse of the "comfort women," and that disease is horrible - but these atrocities were happening across four continents. The scale of suffering is breath-taking, and while the material (chopped off hands bring thrown in stacks in the snow) isn't the typical stuff of a history class, I can't help but feel I missed something  in reading about the movements of troops.

I am very lucky to live in this age, which, despite its wars, has been the most peaceful the world has ever known. May this statement continue to be truer and truer.