Thoughts on War

[Joe Washington]

Why do people make war out to be this glorious thing? The stuff of foolish action movies that some

people consider genuine glimpses of reality? I am astounded by this view on such bloody business. It

makes me fear for this society, for this world. Let me make it clear to all: war isn’t glorious. It isn’t

exciting. It’s terrifying. It’s bloody. It’s the stuff of everlasting nightmares. War isn’t something to be

celebrated. It’s a necessary evil that should only be given into when it’s absolutely necessary.

Personally, I’m sick of war. I’m sick of its carnage and of the irreparable damage it brings to lives. I’ve

seen it too many times to merely count. A number of wars have been fought for stupid reasons like

greed, hatred, or squabbles over territory. I rather the nature of war was done with for good so I can

live in a world of peace. In a world of peace, I would never carry a weapon again and that for me

would be a blessing. There’ll be no terrible deaths for what others claim to be the greater good. No

massacres in the field or unnecessary bloodshed that are deemed collateral damage. No one should

die in such ways or live to experience them. One’s soul can be tainted by witnessing such acts that

show you the darkness of humanity. Some people think violence is fun and should be acted out as if it

is a game of entertainment. It is not a game. It is a dark aspect of life that I think all of us would be

better off without. I think a lot of us can learn more from non-violence than violence. To live rather

than to kill. To heal rather than to hurt. To make friends rather than to make enemies. I’m not naïve to

think that following those three things would be easy. Life throws us our share of obstacles into our

path. There will always be challenges to a non-violent way of life. But that doesn’t make it any less of

a dream worth pursuing. It makes it more of the tempting of light at the end of the tunnel. When

seeing that light, all one can do is race towards it. Race towards freedom. Race towards salvation.

Race towards the bright possibility of something better than the darkness of the passage you are

traveling through. Non-violence is all those things. It’s worth running to and reaching in the end.

 

[iguana_tonante]

War is hell.

Proper formatting is heaven.

 

[Knight Templar]

War is very bad.

But there are worse things.

 

[Random_Spock]

Not a fan of war either. Too much of it is fighting for the sake of it. Too many people die because of it.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

"What we've got here is failure to communicate
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week
Which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men" *
(whistle)

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of god and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land
And

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no

Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of god or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

"We practice selective annihilation of mayors and
Government officials for example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum as popular war advantage
Peace is closer" **

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don't need one more war

I don't need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway?
(whistle)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fHxPY3TJo

 

[cooleddie74]

When two tribes go to war, love is all that you can score.

 

[auntiehill]

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing.

 

[ngc7293]

Though war is bad, it has brought us technology that we would not get otherwise in such a short time.

 

[kythe]

But is the technology really worth the lives lost and hateful attitudes on both sides?

 

[iguana_tonante]

I am lover, not a fighter.

But I'm also a fighter, so don't get any ideas.

 

[cultcross]

Scenarios where I consider war justifiable occur with the frequency of generations. The idea we use it as a 'last resort' currently is a very bad joke.

 

[137th Gebirg]

"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."
- Robert E. Lee

 

[Knight Templar]

Scenarios where I consider war justifiable occur with the frequency of generations. The idea we use it as a 'last resort' currently is a very bad joke.

Well, one of the reasons is that for western nations are able to wage low level wars against technologically inferior opponents with little risk to themselves.

 

[RAMA]

Some philosophers argue that you can't have peace without war, and that may be the case, but only for societies at a certain developmental level: culturally, technologically, etc. I'd dare say that more advanced species than us would find war to be useless for a myriad of reasons, whether it be evovlving beyond the need for conflict/violence; or an integrated consciousness that creates better mutual understanding; or technological advancement that creates plenty, and allows for unlimited resources that are tapped from the universe around us.

Luckily it appears that we are headed in the rght direction on Earth, contrary to popular belief:

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html

RAMA

 

[tomalak301]

War is a necessary evil. Most of the time, it's not justified (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) but in the case of the World Wars or just wars that affect a country's history (Like for the US you had the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War), then to some points of view it was necessary. I hope for a time when it's not war that affects technology or getting the economy back on track, but there always needs to be an excuse for something.

 

[cultcross]

Scenarios where I consider war justifiable occur with the frequency of generations. The idea we use it as a 'last resort' currently is a very bad joke.

Well, one of the reasons is that for western nations are able to wage low level wars against technologically inferior opponents with little risk to themselves.

I'd agree; but nations with much more to lose enter into stupid wars all the time, so it sadly isn't as simple as your ability to win. I agree, however, that it is this which has dulled our perspective in the west of exactly what war is, and what it means. We think it is a 'support our troops' bumper sticker and using the word 'hero' a lot.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This debt that the US has saddled itself with to fight the war on terror, running into the trillions of dollars, perhaps as much as 1/4 of our national debt, can hardly be said to impose little risk to the prosperity of the country.

Is the US good for the money? Yes, absolutely, I believe we are. But, will having to pay it back negatively impact our quality of life? Yes, absolutely, I believe it will. The issue is especially significant, given that one of the candidates for President wants to shift the tax burden onto the poor.

There are other dangers besides defeat on the battlefield. The idea that technology has made us impervious to the negative effects of war is an illusion. It's just made the negative effects more abstract.

 

[cultcross]

Agreed; and we as a species are notoriously poor at recognising and acting on abstract or future dangers.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

I am not sure if the War on Terror would had ever happened without the press overreacting to it. 911 was bad but come on, OBL was no Hitler nor an existential threat.

 

[MacLeod]

The only thing shocking about the 9-11 terrorist attacks was the severity of it. A terrorist attack on American soil was bound to happen at some point in time.