The end of MASH


The inspiration for the film and long-running TV series M*A*S*H was a system of mobile army hospitals in the US military which, on the one hand, undoubtedly saved thousands of lives of soldiers who would have surely died in previous conflicts without such prompt medical help, but on the other hand created a moral dilemma for doctors who are sworn under their Hippocratic oath to cause no harm, to make it possible for the modern military to fight such wars. This dilemma was confronted now and again by Hawkeye in the TV show but never satisfactorily resolved. It was always drunk into oblivion. The real life equivalent of the MASH are being disbanded by the US military in favour of smaller, more mobile field units which can save the lives, if not the bodies, of even more of the unfortunate casualties of war. The courage of the makers of MASH was that they brought some of the carnage of war to prime time TV while a war was in progress, or rather winding down to its shameful conclusion. Admittedly, it was one war removed, not Vietnam because that was too immediate, but Korea. The equivalent today would be a show which depicted the horrible carnage of say, the Vietnam War, while the current war in Iraq is in progress. It would never happen given the spinelessness of the American media. Farewell and goodbye...


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Posted: Mon - February 20, 2006 at 10:14 PM        

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