# Do wars suck more now than they did in the past? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986 "2007-06-22T12:28:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986/21 "2007-06-23T08:16:39Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] This is most definitely true. There’s really not a single area of a modern sailors life that isn’t demonstrably better than it was for a sailor operating in say, the 19th century. A modern U.S. ship of war isn’t going to be confused as a cruise ship by anyone, the officers live in cramped quarters and the enlisted men are sometimes bunked pretty tight, with constant flow traffic through their sleeping area. Still way better than any ship from the Age of Sail. [/QUOTE] Heh, my cousin handled Tomahawk weapons systems on the USS Hayler. He and his crew had a little clubhouse in there with a big screen TV, DVDs and a Playstation. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986/22 "2007-06-23T11:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] I’ve always heard that the American Civil War and the Western Front in WWI were the suckiest. [/QUOTE] I was think the same. Had the _worst_ of both worlds, didn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986/23 "2007-06-23T18:49:16Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] I’ve always heard that the American Civil War and the Western Front in WWI were the suckiest. [/QUOTE] Well, I would certainly imagine that they were the worst _for the United States_, but I really would like some justification of calling them the worst _overall_. What about the Eastern Front in WW2, just for a recent example? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986/24 "2007-06-23T19:27:59Z")
Wars had to have sucked more in the past. Today’s wars are a lot more remote to most of us, for one thing. Since WWI for most Americans (Pearl Harbor aside) and WWII for most Europeans, we’ve had the luxury of hearing about wars. We don’t see them these days. The enemy isn’t going to storm through **our** towns and kill and/or rape our loved ones and neighbors, _then_ demand we feed and shelter them. We don’t use the draft any more, for another. It’s remotely possible that it could be reinstated, but that’d be political suicide. Instead of waiting in terror for a loved one to get a draft notice, the fear of reinstatement is a background noise worry. There just isn’t much of a real possibility that our sons, brothers, husbands and friends are going to be shipped off to die. Those who go choose to - it’s still tragic when they die, but at least they seemed to believe in the cause they died for. And it still sucks when they’re injured, but aren’t a lot more of them healed these days than permenently maimed? Lot less limbs being lost than back in the old days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-wars-suck-more-now-than-they-did-in-the-past/408986.md?page=1)