Whenever the U.S. takes a military action, there is often a great deal of emphasis on how few American lives will be or have been lost during the action. And when American soldiers die in action, it is often national news.
On the other hand, the deaths of dozens, scores, and even hundreds of civilians of other countries can be met with a relative indifference by the media and the public. Still, the deaths of American civilians in war would probably bring an extended national period of mourning.
So, here’s the question. Is an American life actually worth more than a foreign life? Is there an (official or unofficial) “exchange rate”? Is an American worth 10 Bosnians? 50? 100? 1? How about French, British, Canadians, or… Libyans? Another “enemy”, like Iraqis?
I’m not asking this to belittle the value of a human life, but as a practical and realistic exercise. Also, does this phenomenon carry over to other countries? Foreign Dopers, feel free to chime in.
For what it’s worth, I’d put an American soldier’s life as the most valuable, from a purely practical standpoint, due to the expense and trouble that is entailed in training a soldier. From a moral standpoint, though… I just wish we could kill fewer people in general. That’s a copout, but I don’t know how I feel otherwise.
It all comes down to your point of reference. As a Canadian, I value the lives of Canadians over those of Americans, Ugandans, etc. just as I value the lives of my family over the lives of yours.
Lazarus7 is on the money. It jjst matters where you’re from.
The reason why it is national news when an American soldier dies is because he is American. It’s like having your own bretheren killed. Likewise, if a Japanese soldier is killed, it would be national news in Japan, but would probably be in the back section of an American newspaper.
In Australia we have an at times obscenely parochial media - I don’t know if there has ever been a headline like:
[large letters]: 3 Australians survive Crash
[small letters]: 200 die in plane disaster over Pacific
but a lot of reporting has that sort of viewpoint. It’s not just a matter of local interest, it’s more that it seems that they don’t think anyone will care about something happening to ‘foreigners’.
Then again, I’ve gotten the idea from folks who have gone to the US that the American media probably wouldn’t even cover the crash unless there were Americans on board, so it’s probably an international thing.
As a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer who saw action in Viet Nam I can say the issue is relevance. American citizens can easily identify with their own citizens. Those citizens may not be supportive of the war but the deaths of the kids from home are easier to visualize.
A casualty or either a member of the opposing armed forces or the unfortunate civilian is felt just as strongly by that persons native peoples.
This is not a game of tennis or soccer and we are all cheering for our countrymen. This is a morbid, ugly, eternal match with no person or country ever being the winner.
I have seen headlines very similar to that, and American media will give only the most cursory coverage to a disaster that does not involve Americans. It kind of disgusts me, and makes me understand why people in other countries automatically assume Americans are assholes.
While I agree with everything said so far, I think there is another element at work here. When a government prosecutes a war, it is very important for them to dehumanize the enemy. Look at Iraq, for example. We all know that Iraqis are all baby killing monsters, therefore their lives are really inconsequential. Here’s a cite for this:
And this is nothing new. The Germans did it to the Jews in WWII. We did it to the Germans in WWI. And I’m sure it goes back much further.
people seem stuck in an “us vs them” mindset. in any comparison, people always think they have the superior family or school or town or state or country. there’s some irony in the fact that a person may look down upon the people of a neighboring town, but then see a brotherhood with those same people when there is a larger “them” to confront. maybe it will take an alien visitation to get all of humanity on one side
An american life is actually worth very little. Look at what happened to the American’s killed during Agusto Pinochet’s coup in Chile. Forgoten and ignored. When that life can be used to either forward or obstruct foreign policy, it’s worth quite a lot.
More valuable than a non-American soldier’s or more valuable than a non-soldier’s, whether or not they are American?
If it is the former, then it can’t be justified unless the US has the most expensive military training regime in the world (debatable at best).
If the latter, you’d have to rate the lives of architects, doctors, astronauts, concert pianists, etc. much more highly, since they cost more to train and (arguably) the “raw material” is more scarce.
Well yes that is what it comes down to. Humans tend to value “us” over “them”. My tribe over those other people (if they really are people). But while that makes some sense for friends and family, I don’t know how it relates to “American” and “Canadian”. Nationhood is an abstraction, and a pretty recent one. Maybe I should feel more solidarity
with Canadians than with Texans since I’m much closer, geographically to you, and we do have those harsh winters in common. Or maybe (Canadians should appreciate this) I should value English speakers over those damned Francophones. (In “We wish to Inform You That Tommorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families” Philip Gourevitch postulates that the French government supported the French speaking Hutu government against the Tutsi rebels because they were opperating out of English speaking Uganda.) And then there is the ever popular racial divide. People do value the “us’s” over the “them’s”. But how you decide which is which is pretty arbitrary.
