Being a retired soldier my perspective is thus: the winners that are writing the history books aren’t necessarily the winners, but those who killed the most.
Often those who deviate from the laws of war in order to cheat and win in horrific ways then get to write about the other side being the bad guys…
Those cucumber farmers in Iraq sure didn’t seem like the Al-Qaeda/ isis that I was told they were. Afghanistan was similar. Nobody was the hero involved in that.
Probably significantly more times than anybody cares to admit. People aren’t exactly nice to each other today, but holy hell the known atrocities of ancient people. Who knows what got omitted or hero washed?
Makes you wonder how many times in the past the bad guys won and it’s just been framed as the good guys winning in history books.
Being a retired soldier my perspective is thus: the winners that are writing the history books aren’t necessarily the winners, but those who killed the most.
Often those who deviate from the laws of war in order to cheat and win in horrific ways then get to write about the other side being the bad guys…
Those cucumber farmers in Iraq sure didn’t seem like the Al-Qaeda/ isis that I was told they were. Afghanistan was similar. Nobody was the hero involved in that.
Probably significantly more times than anybody cares to admit. People aren’t exactly nice to each other today, but holy hell the known atrocities of ancient people. Who knows what got omitted or hero washed?
To a certain extent, but most those ancient societies didn’t exactly shy away from actively highlighting the atrocities they committed.
America still exists and writes its own history books, so (remember, good means us, not objectively more moral)