“War Is Not The Answer”
In a perfect world filled with perfect people, perhaps that statement would be true. But Uptopia, we do not live in.
War is not the answer. Ask the European Jewish population during World War II if that statement is true. My grandfather was there, rushing the beaches at Normandy. He is one of only a handful of men still alive that were there that day. He was there to fight the bad guys – to save those that needed saving – and to right that which was wrong. Europeans cheered him and his comrades as they entered each city. He is a hero.
War is not the answer. Ask Scotland during the early 1300’s if that statement is true. Under the rule of England, they had no freedom. No – war was the ONLY answer. Someone had to stand up and fight for what England was not going to allow them to have. Scotland’s sons rushed the fields at Bannockburn to defy England. They paid the price for what generations since them have benefited from. They were heroes.
War is not the answer. Ask those men and women who were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 if that statement is true. Japan launched a surprise attack on America that fateful day. Military leaders planned that attack while diplomats engaged in “peace talks” with America. The men and women that fought back that day did so with hands tied behind their backs. Ships were already sunk. Airfields were already leveled. Planes were already destroyed. Crippled – they were still heroes.
No one likes war. I cringe every single time I wake up to the news announcing how many people were killed by terrorists in Iraq the previous day.
I wish to God that bad guys did not exist. That there was no one to fight. But Evil exists and Good must rise up to face it.
Scotland didn’t pick that fight with England. My grandfather didn’t pick that fight with Hitler. America didn’t pick that fight with Japan. Freedom didn’t pick a fight with bin Laden or al-Zarqawi.
Japan. Nazi Germany. Oppressive England. They were all bullies.
Osama bin Laden. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Saddam Hussein. Bullies.
And since bullies only respond to strength, we all must be prepared to be much stronger.
I would love for someone to give “the answer”. What shall we do, sit down and have a cup of chai tea with Osama? I hope and pray that diplomacy will work in future situations – Iran, for example. But sometimes, someone simply has to stand up to the bullies.
14 comments:
Extremely well put. I applaud what you wrote and the way you wrote it.
We hate war. War IS hell. But when someone threatens my family with harm, should I just walk away, or run, knowing that he is still coming one day? That he will harm my neighbor after I'm gone, and then my other neighbors too? No, we must stick together and stand up to the bullies. I don't want to be in a war, but I will do what it takes to protect that which is vital to my life.
morbid - thanks man. it's a touchy subject and one that tears me apart on a frequent basis. it's like i told someone else about it: we must simply understand the reality of our situation. today is no different from the 1940's or the 1300's or whenever. there are bad people in the world who want to spread fear and hate and death. wishing that it weren't so will not make them go away. it's almost as if our hand is forced, in a way.
dennis - yes, we do, bro. and yes, it is. both my grandfathers were in WWII. one passed away a few years ago, but i have the utmost respect and pride for the both of them. defying someone like hitler and something like the nazi war machine must have took an amount of courage, heart and love that i cannot even fathom.
i understand the dissent for what America does. a strong argument can be made against our post 9/11 policies. but a strong argument can be made for them, as well.
i feel strongly that only history will be the true judge by which all this is measured.
but as we all know - the right decision is rarely the popular one.
You're right, of course. Although, I wonder if the soldiers on the field would want you to be as upset about it as you say you are. What I mean is, sometimes I think we concede that "war is hell" because we are trying to show the anti-war crowd that we feel their pain. And war is a form of hell-- though nothing like the hell of pacivism and the tyranny and oppression that follow it. When you consider that equation, war is often just and good, a necessary evil (if it can be called 'evil' at all). And America's role in WWII, for example, cannot be called 'evil' under any definition. The deaths of the innocent are evil, sure, but the war was crucial and our victory prevented evils too great to number.
I guess what I'm saying is, I agree with you, but I want to endorse war with no misgivings, no hesitation. When valiant heroes like your grandfather landed at Normandy, they were afraid, I'm sure--but they stormed the beaches with absolute commitment, convinced that they were on the side of justice and ultimately, peace. I'm through letting the ivory-tower types confuse my convictions with their mushy-headed thinking.
I'm sorry. You just make me think sometimes, you know. And there's this book I've been reading.....
steven - excellent points, man. i agree with every single one of them.
steven - to comment on what you wrote: the act of war is hell. the act of killing others and putting innocent people in harm's way. our soldiers (and the soldiers of contributing nations), i love with all my heart. those men and women are protecting us. not just America, either. but every country on Earth that claims freedom and liberty as birthrights. people of America as well as those other nations need to wake up and realize that.
however, to use your example, no, America's role in WWII was not evil or bad. it was courageous, noble and a position of very strong leadership. writing this post, i asked myself: "where would the world be without America?" it's not that i think our junk doesn't stink, but think about it. would the world have escaped Communism? would Europe have escaped Nazi Germany? i don't know - but i do know that America has stood as a superpower and has consistently taken the right path.
we have protected a lot of people that we didn't have to protect.
and great point about pacivism leading to tyranny and oppression.
willow - precisely. those people are the "bullies" that i was referring to.
Willow's right, too.
There's a book out there somewhere that I never read, by Vonnegut I think, that has a world in which the 3rd Reich wins WWII. I don't know much about it.
But to ponder the reality--Russia was a winner, an allied power, but went on to slaughter untold millions. If the Nazis or Japanese or some other combination had won, the world would be a mess today. People like to imagine we're all equal. Journalists, for example, and law professors--they live in this world of moral equivalency, where we are all the same. Of course, they fault Hitler because that's expected and PC. But they go on to say we're no better. And this is a principle with some people. It has to be--otherwise you could never, ever say that "WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER." No one can look on Hitler's invasion of Poland, France, etc., his rounding up of Jews, his plans for world domination, and then say "War is not the answer," unless they first have committed to absolute moral equivalency. Which in this case, is really a committment to no morals at all. And for most true believers, the world view is all-encompassing: life began with prehistoric proteins, men evolved from one-celled organisms, the universe just happened, and morals, values, ethics, politics, and principles are all mere social-constructs, an accident of higher intelligence, and of no real consequence. Right and wrong are elusive concepts based only on behavioristic social conditioning, i.e., the way you were raised. In other words, there is no right and wrong--again, these are social constructs. And even the 'my rights stop at your nose' is a social construct, a convenient way for people to live together, but not a 'value' in any sense. Because such things do not actually exist--being social constructs.
I guess if you swallow all that, then sure, "war is not the answer." Otherwise, there are clearly many situations in which war IS the answer, the one and only answer. May God save us from the confusion and paralysis of narcissistic, nihilistic post-modernism. Otherwise, on a day when our leadership is weak, we will be dragged into a war, the efforts we will bring to battle will be too little, too late, and we will lose.
(On that happy note, thanks again for the thought-provoking post.)
It is true that war is sometimes the answer. But what of the fact that Osama is not from Iraq the country with whom we are at war? What of the fact that we went to war against the "terrorists" when in fact not one of the 9/11 terrorists that hijacked those planes were from Iraq. Why are we not at war with Saudi Arabia insisting they give up Osama? Why are we still in bed with them? these are questions that people need to ponder not just the simplicity of good vs. evil.
You know, it doesn't really matter whether or not war is the answer. What matters is that not only the president but the congress that heads this nation believed that, EVEN IF UNFOUNDED OR MISPLACED, there was a reason to go to war. As a democratic society and arguably the most privileged in the world, what we need to realize is that we have all done a great disservice to our countrymen if we let them die in vain, standing next to the watercooler and bitching about when they might actually find those weapons of mass destruction and how bad of a job Bush is doing. Someone died today so you could be there, all comfy in your Dockers, saying whatever the hell you want to. Not just in this war, but in every one before it. And depending on where your ancestors came from, there's a long, LONG list of people who died so you can be who you are where you are. And how DARE any American forget that? My best friend's husband was a Marine in Al Ramadi at the prison for one year, just returned in November. He said the scariest thing about Iraqi soldiers is that you don't know which ones are the enemy. THEY AREN'T WEARING UNIFORMS. He believed in his mission, and he said that so does every woman and man over there. Whether you like it or not, our troops need to know that they are not defending a nation of people who spit in the face of the cause. And if you don't like it, in a few years you can vote for someone you think may take it in the right direction, because after all, since you watch the news, you really KNOW all there is to know about the reasons we are at war and you could do a better job. It's gonna take time, and prayers, and a nation that stands behind the men and women it send into battle. I don't care whether you are pro-war or anti-war, the fact is we must stand behind the decisions we make via our vote. And if you try to come back and tell me that one vote doesn't matter, I'll show you a nation in which less than 50% of the people vote but 100% of them have an opinion. Funny how that works, ain't it? Okay, off the soapbox. You started it, J.
For the record, war is not ALWAYS the answer, though offhand I can't think of an American war I would not support. I'm sure there is one.... But Trey's right about the futility of peace talks. It's worth a try, of course. Sometimes they work. An odd example is the story of talks with the NIF of Sudan. After political pressure, much of it exerted by an AMAZING alliance from Midland, Texas (writing under the letterhead:"Hometown of George and Laura Bush"), the NIF, the UN, US ambassadors, and others sat down at the table and hammered out a deal that ended a 20-year war against the Christians and animists of southern Sudan. Finally there was peace. Then the NIF got restless and began slaughtering people in Darfur--an area in Eastern Sudan that could be bombed and scorched without violating the treaty.... (Pardon the oversimplification.)
steven - spinning off of your comments (which were very deep and thought provoking)
"there are no absolutes"
"what is 'right' to you may not be 'right' to me"
that type of thinking is perplexing to me. so rape is not ALWAYS wrong?? there must be situations where it would be okay, under this thinking, because there are no absolutes.
trey - awesome points you make, with the fact-based examples. i know you know more about actual situations than most of us do, so thanks for chiming in. not to bash clinton, because i think he did good things with regard to our national debt, but i do think he dropped the ball on terrorism and not taking stands where he needed to. however, i was totally uninterested in politics until the last few years, so i may be ignorant to the facts.
stefanie - good points, as i said in my initial comment that a strong case can be made against our post 9/11 policies. however, if we would recall president bush's speech following that tragic day, he basically laid out our ensuing foreign policy. he said 2 things which i think we need to remember - something to the effect of:
"any country that harbors or supports terrorist organizations will be regarded as a terrorist organization itself." - i think it's been made painfully obvious to us all that hussein not only harbored some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world, but also supported families of suicide bombers, paying them tens of thousands of dollars.
"you are either with us or you are against us." - in other words, you are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem. the rules changed on 9/11, and we must adapt. a country can choose to take the offensive, and go after any organizations existing within it's borders, or it can ignore them. if it chooses to ignore them, then that creates problems for the rest of the world. clearly, iraq was NOT part of the solution, which made it part of the problem.
christa - i feel very much like you do. first off, most of us have no frickin clue what is going on, REALLY. i mean, we know what ABC or CBS or FOX tell us, but who knows how much of the story that actually is?? i can't stand people who think they know everything about it simply because they read the new york times. give me a break. we need to do much more research than watching the news to be truly educated. secondly, our military needs our utmost support and love. as well as their families. those people are protecting the FREE WORLD. this goes beyond borders. they're protecting England and Canada and Italy and Australia and many more free countries. and the people they're fighting don't play by the Rules of War. they aren't uniformed. they aren't identifiable. like i said before, the rules have changed, and we must adapt.
may God help us with the situation in Iran. i don't want to go to war with them. we need the UN and some other countries to step up and tackle this situation head on. if we let it simmer, i fear it will only get worse.
thanks for all the CIVIL, WELL-WRITTEN opinions on this stuff. i know it's a touchy subject and i didn't want it to become political, which it hasn't. very appreciative.
Funny- to state unequivocally that "there are no absolutes" is in itself a statement of a belief in an absolute. Ergo even in a world where many things are indeed considered "relative," some things are absolute irrespective of outside factors.
dennis - exactly. i was going to make that point, but clearly, i forgot to. ha.
cliff - i think you made a very logical progression there. excellent observation. i'm lookin forward to that post!
patthebunny - you're an idiot. don't ruin my blog by posting on here ever again.
thanks - good day.
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