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Edited on Tue Aug-01-06 02:20 PM by boolean
Everyone here who supports the Iraq war raise your hand. Now everyone who supports what Israel is doing, raise your hand.
I notice more people raised their hands on the second one.
"But Israel has good reason to!", you say. So did bush when he invaded Iraq. WMD was a good reason. It turned out to be false, but it was a good reason. Then when the WMD claim turned out to be false, he switched to "Saddam was bad". Also a good reason. Spreading democracy in the mideast? A good reason. There are many "good reasons" for war. The people of North Korea are starving because of a brutal dictator. The people of Darfur are being systematically wiped off the face of the Earth. The Chinese and the Cubans are oppressed. Vietnam. Somalia. Kosovo. There are so many places where there's good reason for war.
It's not about whether or not there's reason for war. It's about whether or not war will solve anything. From the beginning of the 20th century, 99% of the time war has never solved anything. Count 'em. World War 1 didn't solve anything. In fact, it can be argued that Hitler would never have even come to power had WW1 not happened. The crippling sanctions after WW1 that plunged Germany into economic ruin was precisely why Hitler was able to scapegoat the Jews and gain popular support. Fast forward a little bit after the end of WW2, the supposedly "successful" war where freedom won over tyranny. Yeah, right.
It was after WW2, (which happened because of WW1) that the Brits carved up the Middle East, conveniently drawing lines around where the oil was. (Kuwait). Had WW2 never happened, Israel wouldn't even be there. But it did happen and Israel was drawn on the map and the Arab countries all around it decided they didn't like that. So then they started another war. They invaded Israel and they lost and once again, what the fuck did the war accomplish? Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Vietnam. Another war. No positive outcome. Iran/Iraq war. No positive outcome. Pakistan vs. India over Kashmir. Still stupidly going. Civil war in Sri Lanka. Not over yet.
How many wars can you count on your fingers that actually had any benefit whatsoever? Kosovo, maybe? The fucking revolutionary and civil war? There aren't that many of them. It's almost as if human history has reached a point where war, once a useful method of dispute resolution, has become obsolete. War used to be between enlisted armies killing one another over whatever reason(s) there may have been. Sometimes the reasons were valid and the war was necessary. But civilians were left out of that (for the most part). It was one army on one side of the field and another army on the other. That all changed with modern warfare, where planes can drop bombs without any regard to the civilians caught in the middle.
How, exactly, is what Israel is doing right now going to improve the situation in the middle east? If they're trying to convince the people of Lebanon that it was Hezbollah that blew up their homes, it's not going to work.
This is the 21st century. War is not necessary anymore. The globe has become too small and the bombs have become too big. The entire human race must stand up to the old warmongers on every side. You just can't justify it anymore. We're not living in an age where bows and arrows and swords are used. We can communicate with one another easier than ever before. Gone are the days when you had to send a horse with a message. We have translators to overcome language barriers. We have modern communication. Why couldn't bush give Saddam a call? Talk it out. What is it about these old men that they can't remember the lessons they learned in kindergarten? I don't really believe war exists anymore in this day and age. Today one country can comfortably sit on its ass and watch as another country gets blown to bits on TV. How is that a war? It's not war, it's terrorism.
When Osama had planes flown into 3 buildings on September 11, 2001, that was not war. It was terrorism. How is lobbing smart bombs into Baghdad any different? How are missiles being dropped in Lebanon any different from rockets being fired into Haifa? None of this is war. It's ALL terrorism. And it's all being perpetrated not by the civilians, but by the old warmongering farts currently running the world. Bush, Osama, Saddam, Ehud, Abdullah, take your pick. They're all a bunch of old men protecting their resources by convincing young people to terrorize.
Osama would never dare blow himself up. He's too rich. Bush would never pick up a gun and go fight himself. Saddam would rather hide in a hole in the ground than put on a kevlar vest and raise hell with the best of 'em. Yasser preferred to chill out at home while enemy troops surrounded his mansion. These are all a bunch of old rich narcissistic asshats who are very good at convincing many (and I'm pointing at YOU!) that "war" is necessary. It can be seen in this very forum, where the same people who are against the Iraq war have no problem with Israel's actions.
Ask yourself: How were you convinced? How did the old men sway you to support the killing of civilians?
I was struck by the article on Gore Vidal that was linked from here a few days ago. Vidal said it best: There is no war on terror. It's like a war on dandruff. It doesn't exist. It's advertising. The old men are advertising and people are falling for it. War itself is terror. War doesn't exist anymore today, only terror does. It's time for us, the pawns in this game that the farts are playing, to stand together and demand an end to this nonsense. If we allow them to continue to play this silly little game, we're all dead. It only takes one nuclear weapon to ignite the end of the human race itself.
To get back to my subject line, I ask everyone here this: Are you pro war or not?
I'm not.
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