Military Tourism

" War is a young man. Medicine against the wrinkle, these lines from the song have now acquired a new sound. In the world, tourist visits to war regions are growing.

Text: Michael Mosesev, Taisia Aleksandrov

Photo: Toshifuri Fujimoto

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To walk to war.

A strange, contradictory story turns out in the United States: an American citizen, Eric Harrun, is facing the death penalty for " self-employed " participation in the Syrian war. The case was as follows: a former military driver, having accepted the Sunni Islam, decided to take safari on the scenes of fighting in Syria and, at the same time, to participate in the fight against " undemocratic " Assad. As a result, Harrun has received the highest attention of the U.S. and Israeli forces, and the army of self-democracy has ended in the District Court of Virginia. How Harrun ' s fate will continue, it is not clear. On the one hand, by going to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad ' s regime, a United States citizen demonstrated the sincere " listening " of his Government ' s political will, on the other hand, committed legal acts that fall under the term " terrorism " .

Interesting moment: Harrun certainly did not consider himself a “military traveler”; his attitude towards the “treading” appeared to be extremely serious. But the notion of " military tourism " itself, as it appears, exists and has long been. A small western business with great profit uses a man's eternal traction to “these adventures”: in the same United States, firms offer travel customers to actual military conflicts. Of course it's illegal. This type of business was seen, for example, during the last Lebanese-Israeli war.