Look around at society today, turn on your TV, go into the schools, listen to parents teaching their children at home, you will hear one common theme repeated among the average American: war is how America stays strong and free, joining the military is an honor, a great career choice, America can only remain free if it stays on top of it's enemies, and many more. Sure this sounds all well and good on the surface, but when you examine it, it isn't.
War has never helped a nation stay strong and free, it has done the opposite. Look into your history books. Rome fought many wars for glory and strength, but that did not ensure their ultimate success, but rather led to their undoing. We all know that the Roman Empire, despite it's military might and great war campaigns did not last, it fell to invading barbarians.
As for the argument that war helps a nation stay free, this is also not true. Historically, the more a nation participates in war, the more oppressive it becomes. Rome is the perfect example of this yet again, in fact, ancient Rome was on virtually the same path of ruin America is today. Rome was once a Republic, a Democracy, but it was a conflict that allowed Octavian to seize control and make it into an empire.
When engaging in war one must walk a very fine line and decide when diplomacy would work best. The Middle East is such a case in which I believe diplomacy would work far better. The countries we are dealing with are poor, backwater countries, many of them without even the means to attack us. When we make shots at such weak and downtrodden targets it doesn't make us look glorious or strong in the eyes of the world, it makes us look like cowards and oppressors.
Humanity has many hurdles yet to work past if we want a better future for our descendants, and our violent instincts is one of them. We know that glorying in war is not good, and that giving into our base animal tendencies is destructive, but we always find ways to justify our doing it. We should not be teaching our children that war and violence are the answer, because they never are. War has never put an end to war, for it only leads to more.
War is an act of hatred, and hate has never yet conquered hate. Hate is conquered by love, to quote the Buddha. We should not be teaching our children that war and bloodshed are the keys to freedom and prosperity, when clearly we are not prospering today. Our love of war has gotten us nowhere, except into an economic slump. We continue to get worse, and it's very simple as to why. A nation that glories in war is on the path of ruin, and that path will end in a swift destruction.
We really must ask ourselves why we promote and uplift war in our society so much. Why we glory in destruction of other human beings and believe it is ever the answer. I am calling on my fellow Americans to wake up. We say that we are the beacon of freedom and liberty, well war certainly hasn't made us into that. One thing has been consistent with the last ten years of war, and that is the loss of our freedoms. The longer we fight, the more freedoms we will lose. History bears this out. The despot always uses war and fear tactics to get the people to yield their liberties.
This is not the path we should be taking. War is not something to glory in, rather it is terrible. We are killing our fellow human beings, and we should never rejoice and glory over such a thing. How can we justify war with a claim we are defending our liberty, when this war has done no such thing? Rather our politicians have used this war to harass us, invade our privacy, and gradually strip us of more and more rights.
I hope we will all pray and work toward peace friends.
War has never helped a nation stay strong and free, it has done the opposite. Look into your history books. Rome fought many wars for glory and strength, but that did not ensure their ultimate success, but rather led to their undoing. We all know that the Roman Empire, despite it's military might and great war campaigns did not last, it fell to invading barbarians.
As for the argument that war helps a nation stay free, this is also not true. Historically, the more a nation participates in war, the more oppressive it becomes. Rome is the perfect example of this yet again, in fact, ancient Rome was on virtually the same path of ruin America is today. Rome was once a Republic, a Democracy, but it was a conflict that allowed Octavian to seize control and make it into an empire.
When engaging in war one must walk a very fine line and decide when diplomacy would work best. The Middle East is such a case in which I believe diplomacy would work far better. The countries we are dealing with are poor, backwater countries, many of them without even the means to attack us. When we make shots at such weak and downtrodden targets it doesn't make us look glorious or strong in the eyes of the world, it makes us look like cowards and oppressors.
Humanity has many hurdles yet to work past if we want a better future for our descendants, and our violent instincts is one of them. We know that glorying in war is not good, and that giving into our base animal tendencies is destructive, but we always find ways to justify our doing it. We should not be teaching our children that war and violence are the answer, because they never are. War has never put an end to war, for it only leads to more.
War is an act of hatred, and hate has never yet conquered hate. Hate is conquered by love, to quote the Buddha. We should not be teaching our children that war and bloodshed are the keys to freedom and prosperity, when clearly we are not prospering today. Our love of war has gotten us nowhere, except into an economic slump. We continue to get worse, and it's very simple as to why. A nation that glories in war is on the path of ruin, and that path will end in a swift destruction.
We really must ask ourselves why we promote and uplift war in our society so much. Why we glory in destruction of other human beings and believe it is ever the answer. I am calling on my fellow Americans to wake up. We say that we are the beacon of freedom and liberty, well war certainly hasn't made us into that. One thing has been consistent with the last ten years of war, and that is the loss of our freedoms. The longer we fight, the more freedoms we will lose. History bears this out. The despot always uses war and fear tactics to get the people to yield their liberties.
This is not the path we should be taking. War is not something to glory in, rather it is terrible. We are killing our fellow human beings, and we should never rejoice and glory over such a thing. How can we justify war with a claim we are defending our liberty, when this war has done no such thing? Rather our politicians have used this war to harass us, invade our privacy, and gradually strip us of more and more rights.
I hope we will all pray and work toward peace friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment