"When one of their number is killed by a
sniper, they order the destruction of the nearby village, then sit on
a hill and watch as shell after shell, alternating high explosives
and incendiary white phosphorus, pulverize the village. A cockroach
couldn’t survive. Why do they do it? It isn’t a military target,
only a village. Did the bullet come from the village? Not exactly,
although the shooter was either a VC villager or a soldier sheltered
by the village. Is he still there? No, the place is deserted when
they look for revenge. You could make the claim that they go after
the community of people who housed the enemy, and certainly there’s
an element of that. But the real target is the physical village—as
place, as center of mystery and threat, as alien environment, as
generic home of potential enemies and uncertain friends. The squad
pours its fear and anger at the land into this one small,
representative piece of it: if they can’t overcome the larger
geography, they can at least express their rage against the smaller."
This came from the chapter about geography and how it is significant in literature.
It's an intriguing passage and I wonder how true it is.
Merry Christmas
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