“Theatre of War”

In the last few days the term “theatre of war” has reappeared. While the term is meant to encompass the region or area in which a war rages, is it not a singly inappropriate term?

What is “theatrical” about war? Is the term designed to surreptitiously remove or gloss over scenes of scattered body parts and splatterings of internal organs; destroyed families, cities, and cultures; or the arms manufacturers gleefully counting their booty? Maybe it is meant to have us observe real war with the same detachment, or even humour, that we watch the Hollywood splatter movies or video games.

Surely a term like “Death Game” might be more appropriate. It may remind us that the political and religious Gamesters who generate real wars are far removed from the death and destruction needed to feed their hallucinations of how their world should be.