How does the war dehumanize people?

Answer 1

I do think war dehumanizes people. The reason i think this is because once your fighting against someone and you know who your target is then you'll do anything to get rid of that person. You'll leave all your human qualities behind and fight dirty to win the opposing person.

Answer 2

Machine guns, long range artillery, Zeppelin bombings, the advent of the tank and submarine, strafing aircraft, mustard gas. These all made mass killing possible, at long range and almost anonymously. This was in keeping with the recent revolution in developing world societies, where prosperity and success in almost any endevour was measured in ever greater numbers...the "Biggest This", the "Fastest That", the "Most of the other Thing!". Combined with a new mechanical age where new machines seemed to somehow lift the capability of Man to challenge God, the success of new weaponry and it's awesome effects were regarded as marvels, not outrages. Infantry tactics of past wars still lay in the "massed fire" school of thought, where great formations of men march to within what seemed like hand-shaking distance before opening fire. There was protocol, chivalry and other rules of engagement, governed and overseen by an Officer Class from the higher stratum of Society. When one side or the other abandoned the practices of the past and class distinctions and lofty ideals of "honor" began to fade during the Industrial Revolution and the rigors of war, the atmosphere combined with the increased killing power of new weapons to bring Total War to it's most dehumanizing thus far. Hand-to-hand combat and the occasionally almost chivalrous nature of fighting with arms that were slow and innacurate gave way to mountains and acres of dead, often without one side even seeing the other. As a result, the defeated often regarded modern weapons and tactics as somehow "sneaky" or subhuman...often feeding a hatred that resulted in even greater slaughter when the fortunes of war shifted, or prisoners taken. An unfortunate example actually resulted from the chivalry offered by German U-Boats toward seamen adrift from ships they'd sunk. U-boat crews often went to great lengths to rescue or provide for the unfortunate crews. Of course, they had little or no room to take prisoners, but often transferred them to a nearby "prize" ship...a captured enemy vessel kept afloat for just this purpose. In one instance, the U-boat was gathering lifeboats and swimming crewmen and called for help from nearby U-Boats when they came under attack by British aircraft. The British killed many of their swimming countrymen and forced the U-boats to submerge, drowning the rest. Pictures taken by British Admiralty were circulated, displayed the supposed cruelty of the German U-boat crews. The German Admiralty reacted by posting standing orders to never again pick up or assist survivors...a copy of which order fell into the hands of the British and thereby reaffirmed their opinion of submarine crews as less than human. The result dehumanized the "Hun" and made the attacks against the British even more deadly...for the Germans no longer surfaced to offer warnings and a few minutes to abandon ship before they sank their target with gunfire or explosive charges, but rather by the quick, unannounced torpedo attack, furthering still the dehumanizing spectre of Death from "out there", without a face , flag or name.