What amazes me is the response that some made of this picture. First of all, I think this pic says a lot about how most feel towards our vets. A young man thanking a vet. What could be better?
Well, when you start to read the comments, a discussion about the justification of war broke out. A Kaye Bryant said that, basically, war is never justified. Its just sanctioned murder and vets, by definition, went to war to kill. Unfortunately, this thinking is not new. Since we entered Afghanistan and Iraq, there have been anti-war protesters in our local city of Danbury, CT protesting against war. These people amaze me. Although nobody really likes war, sometimes it is necessary. That is why we have a military. But lets take a walk down through our history to see what I mean.
Human history is filled with conflict. Some bad and some good. I don't want to argue all wars, just those of the past hundred years. Almost one hundred years ago, Europe erupted in what could be described as the last war in Europe fought over disputes between monarchies. Whatever the reason, many millions of people died; that is until the United States went to war and, under the direction of General Pershing, we ended that war in months. Was our entry in that war justified? History says yes. If we didn't, how much longer would the stalemate have lasted? What other types of chemical weapons would have been developed and used? So, we went to war and then there was peace in Europe, at least for a little while.
In 1917, revolution broke out in Russia. There was mass lawlessness and panic in the streets. The Communists, under Lenin, began to gain control. It is a little known fact that the US sent troops into Russia to try to establish some order. The effort was minimal; after all, we just ended one war in Europe, why should we jump into another. The result, it is estimated that the Communists killed nearly 75 million people. Maybe our attempt at intervention was actually justified.
In 1939, after Hitler conquered a number of eastern European nations, the British Prime Minister Chamberlain met with him and he saw no reason to worry about Hitler's plans. Almost immediately after that, Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain, France and the other allied nations, except the US, declared war on Germany again. Chamberlain was so wrong about Hitler that he resigned as Prime Minister. The US stayed out of the war officially for another two plus years. However, we did not stay out completely. We sent weapons and equipment to our British allies and we helped China defend against Germany's ally, Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we finally entered the war. Was this war justified? When done, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 60 million people were killed, not to mention the 10-12 million killed in Hitler's death camps. Sometimes we need to enter war. Sometimes it is justified.
Since WWII, the US has been involved militarily during every Presidency. We went into Korea because the people of South Korea did not want to be ruled by communists. We went into Vietnam for the same reason. We found ourselves trying, and failing, to invade Iran in 1980. We had troops in Beirut because of the bloody civil war that was resulting in civilian slaughters and kidnappings. We went into Granada because we had some American students held under siege by communists. We invaded Panama because Noriega was working directly with the drug smugglers in Columbia. We went into the Persian Gulf war because Saddam Hussein invaded his neighbor Kuwait and threatened, with hundreds of thousands of troops, to invade Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi army orchestrated the killing, raping and pillaging of thousands in Kuwait. In Somalia, people were starving because of a drought that wiped out crops and the warlords were ambushing aid supplies, then selling them to the highest bidder, which were not the general population. In Croatia, Milosevic attempted to wipe out the ethnic population with his campaign of ethnic cleansing, which meant slaughtering all the males and raping and impregnating the women with Serbian babies. The same thing began happening in Kosovo. Usama Bin Ladin formed Al Quada in order to wreck havoc against the west, especially the US. They killed thousands of civilian on 9/11 as well as hundreds around the world in numerous attacks, including the two US embassies in Africa, the attack on the USS Cole, and several bombings in Saudi Arabia against US forces. There was even a connection with Al Quada and the first World Trade Center bombing in 1992. Recently, we sent troops into Libya in order to prevent Qaddafi, a known terrorist sympathizer, from slaughtering his own people.
Wow, that list is long; and I'm sure I left some conflicts out. The point is that the US has used our military force repeatedly throughout the past hundred years. Although some may disagree with the decisions to use force, every time was justified, at least in my mind. All one has to do is put themselves in the place of the people that we are sent to save.
Now lets confront the primary argument that anti-war protesters use. "What makes you think that we are right. Isn't it a bit arrogant to say that the American way is the right way?" I love this argument. These are the same people who will argue that Gitmo detention is wrong because it violates our enemies rights and maybe even the Geneva convention. What a minute. LMAO (sorry, had to do it).
The point is that it is the US and our allies that abide by the Geneva Convention. If we so much as slap a illegal combatant, then that soldier is looking at spending years in Leavenworth. Our enemies, on the other hand, kill civilians, torture captives and never abide by these rules of war. That is why they are our enemies. Period.
If we didn't invade Europe not once, not twice, but three times in the past century (WWI, WWII, and Croatia), many more millions would have been wipe out and the blood of genocide would have been on the hands of all those nations who were complacent. Saddam Hussein was already in production of chemical weapons within Kuwait by the time we entered. How many more would he have slaughtered; after all, he used these weapons on towns within his own country. Milosevic, probably one of the worst butchers in the post WWII era, would have successfully wiped out the Croatian and Kosovar populations. Pol Pot, after we left Vietnam, did manage to slaughter a million plus. Since we didn't intervene, the slaughter in Uganda in the 1990's resulted in an estimated 800,000 plus being butchered by machetes. (I remember seeing a documentary where a TV crew went back to a town that was being attacked when the crew originally left. There were skeletons laying all over the place because so many were butchered, there was no one left to bury the bodies. The rat population was huge because they were able to feed on the bodies for years.) And the examples can go on and on.
So the question is, is war justified? My answer: Yes. As long as there are bad people in this world, then we must fight them. But then what? The argument that democracy is not for some people in the world is wrong. This same argument was used in the middle of the 19th century. Slavery had always existed. Since the beginning of civilization, there have always been slaves. Why should those of the North try to dictate their opinions and views on those of the South? What makes the US think it is arrogant enough to force the South to change its ways? The answer is that is was right. Slavery was wrong. Period.
By the same token, slaughtering civilians is wrong, no matter who is doing it. Violations of the Geneva convention, which specifically prevents civilians as being targets, as well as shields, is wrong. And I for one believe that we, as the most powerful superpower the world has ever known, should fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. I think that the Croatians and Kosovars would think the same way. I think the Kuwaitis would think the same way. I think the Somalians who were starving would think the same way.
Americanization of the world means the spread of democracy and ability of the population to have the same rights that we have:
- Freedom of Speech
- Freedom of Assembly and, yes, dissent
- Freedom of the Press
- Freedom from the oppressive nature of the government
- Freedom to chose, and change, your government
- Freedom to experience those inalienable rights, endowed by our Creator, of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
I will support our use of military force to guaranty these rights, not just for American citizens, but for Humans throughout the world. The reason: Because our Creator did not give these rights just to Americans. They were given to the entire human race. If that defines Americanization of the World and if we have to go to war because of it, then so be it. Period.
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