[OT] war games and war

Glenn wrote:
Why is it that war games seem so... well, Fun... but the real thing is
so... Horrific?  Is it because it has the 'distance' of history or (for
SF and Fantasy) 'not reality' or because we compartmentalize our minds
so easily?

I reply:

That is a part of it. The other part is that in our games, the only
dying is done by lead figures. Not real people. And the little lead guys
don't bleed, don't have families, and they get up to fight the next one.
It is half simulation and half competitive mental exercise. I think for
some of us, it is a tool for understanding one ugly part of reality in
some very very small inadequate way. But it is, and always should stay,
a game. I won't game on Rememberance Day, and I surely won't be running
any terrorist scenarios at any of the cons I go to for a long long
while. To me, it seems to make light of a very serious matter.	

OTOH, the men and women in the civilized world, in the armed forces and
merely citizens and voters, they create a world in which we have the
freedom to game, to engage in mental excercises and to socialize and
have fun without fear of oppression. And the police, firefighters and
soldiers stand up and defend our safety. Their efforts allow us to game
and as Mr. Sarno said to me "I will not let terrorists run my life".
Life goes on, and in going on, defies the will of those who would steal
from us our simple enjoyments, our happiness, our entertainments. By not
letting these things be taken from us, we show that we are affected, but
that we will not let them achieve their aims.