Sunday, April 17, 2011

"The Things They Carried" Response #1

War should be out last resort in times when our national security is actually at stake. The United States has fought in some wars that were worth fighting however many were not. George Bush used 9-11 to encourage Americans to support the war in Iraq. He called the war a "war on terror". What is a "war on terror" though? How could we actually win this war? The Bush Administration lied to America that there was weapons of mass destruction in the middle east and he in part wanted to go to war in order to avenge his father. Osama Bin Laden the man who organized the 9-11 attacks tried to kill Bush's father our former president when he was in office. We should not go to war for revenge. Revenge for bush, 9-11, or anything else. It's more important to protect ourselves than it is to search for invisible members of terrorist groups. I believe WWl and WWll were justified because Hitler needed to be stopped and the Allies needed our assistance to do so however we did not benefit much in the end from WWl. Vietnam is just like our war right now. We can't win and our government is involved for bad reasons. In Vietnam Americans were told we entered the war to stop the spread of communism ("containment"). The Pentagon Papers gave us new information however that revealed the dishonesty of our presidents during this time. One main reason that the Vietnam war is the longest we have ever fought is that our presidents didn't want to be the first to loose a war. Vietnam is the first and only war that we have officially lost. We should be spending more time and money on issues at home rather than abroad.

1 comment:

  1. Ian,

    I have also thought about the 'War on Terror' too. What exactly does that mean?

    I once heard someone say, "It is impossible to 'win' a war on terror because 'terror' is a concept, not a person or a country." This really gave me pause.

    I appreciate your insights and reflections on this post.

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