| I support the troops, not the war |
[Oct. 31st, 2006|07:44 pm] |
As long as I can remember, I have never liked the idea of becoming a soldier. It always seemed that I was not the person to risk my life for my country. I long considered military intelligence though, but I came to the realization that they make atomic bombs and the like. Something I have never wanted to do. But, my heart still goes out to those who do go out there. Despite the criticism, and name calling by peace fanatics, some people just want to protect those they love. I respect that.
The “war” with Iraq has never seemed reasonable except for economic reasons. It causes people to ignore actual issues and discuss the war. Schools lack funding, (and if they got it, would they properly use it?) medicine could always benefit from more research, and things like the Peace Corps could always use donations. Fortunately, the government has found a way to prevent “wasting” money on such small things, by having a large deficit. Now, I know I am not one to talk economics, but everyone should know this by now. War is good for the economy; it allows companies to build items to be expended. If we went to war with swords, would we need large amounts of ammunition? No, it would be ridiculous, but we would save money. To cut this part short, as it is unimportant to the topic of the essay, basically, war is good for the economy and thus good for the wealthy and bad for people, both middle and lower class. Think about which you are next time you say we should go to war.
To begin the actual description of way I support the troops, I would like to point out that the troops (I’m speaking of the grunts, not the generals in charge of everything) do not decide where they go; they only wish to either get money for college, kill people, or save their loved ones. While I respect only two of those three, killing people to save a person who is getting money for college is respectable in its own manner. Another simple thing is that how can you complain about the war in such great detail if you have never been. To me, these troops go to war so we don’t have to. My grandfather served in the army the majority of his life between 17-50 as far as I know. He once told me that “people who describe war never saw exactly what happened. They embellish it and when they do that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” This coming from a 70+ year old fisherman who has been hit with a stingray barb in his foot and has pushed a fishing hook through his hand, he saw what it was really like. He was there for the stories of having a dear friend die in front of him. He was there for when that man was hit with a mortar with an impact so great that his dog tags couldn’t be found. All of this, is hidden in one man’s mind, and why? Because anything he says cannot properly describe the pain felt. Poets write using massively complex literary devices to the point where no one cares about the content; they just notice the brilliance in the delivery of the thoughts. I respect his choice to stay quiet.
For a moment I would like everyone to realize that Muslim nation is not a united one. The many factions that are constantly fighting are no different than us trying to “solve” their problems. They just sort their problems out on a much smaller, slightly more effective scale.
I’ve known many people throughout my life who say “just drop a nuke on them” when referring to dealing with Iraq. “They are a bunch of crazy people who are just killing each other.” If you agree, I ask you to go there, experience the hell those people go through daily while you drive your 1995 Taurus to work, they don’t have a car, or medicine, or food sometimes. Would you kill a man to give your last surviving child of twelve food? People do strange things when put into a situation like that. Chances are anyway, that most of the people saying to kill them all are of an opposing religion (almost never Muslim by my encounters, because they aren’t just killing each other) and dislike other religions to begin with. I wish to say to them, why aren’t you a soldier, go kill some yourself, go design a new weapon, go do something to kill them. But really, what do they know? They just support the war, and don’t care about the troops. I’m sure one of the people who said that had a son who went AWOL because he fell in love with a woman and ran away with her there. Would you want to kill him also?
Whenever nuclear weapons are brought up, people always get a sense of arrogance. “Nukes have never been used to kill Americans.” Who cares? A single weapon can destroy entire cities, and a college Chemistry student can make one. If the need was there, I possess the ability to level a good deal of a city where I live, with other methods than a nuke also. But I have NO will to kill people. I just want people to see for a little bit that those weapons, if used again, could then be used on us, and we couldn’t survive that. If you don’t believe me, research the strength of current weapons. By now, several of nuclear devices could take out an area the size of Texas. Think about that when you think that we have the most nuclear warheads, why do you think other countries are scared?
Overall, I wish for people to not jump the gun and wish just to kill them all. Some people are going to disagree religiously, and fueling that never helps. Please, try to see that war isn’t the right issue, but if you don’t like the war, please don’t hate those who just want to try to help the world in a way they can. |
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