Random Rant: Thoughts on Vietnam and Iraq

I saw an article about the Vietnam War Memorial now having an online website, and I started to think about that memorial and how powerfully simple it is and what it really means.

And when I think about it, I realize what it means for us now. You see, as a Memorial, it serves to never let us forget the atrocities of war. But it it s a symbol in another fashion as well; that point is that war should serve only one purpose, and that is as a response to a direct physical threat to the safety of our nation, and never as a initiated conflict.

The Vietnam War (or actually, 'Conflict' because there was no Declaration of War) was an engagement started to combat an ideology that opposed our way of life. Was it right to defend freedom? Was that even what that war was about? North Vietnam is still "communist" and we lost that war for any number of reasons. It was used to combat what we viewed as a threat.

The war (once again, actually a 'conflict' without that declaration) we are currently in is a war of economics and resources, as well as being masked as a war of security (though that is in Afghanistan or somewhere else). It was started to combat forces that threatened us economically.

The Iraqi Conflict was not an initiative of reaction, but of warmongering. It is wrong, and creating wars will always be wrong.

War should never, EVER, be considered a bargaining strategy or a foreign policy strategy. War should only be used as a defensive mechanism. That's what the Vietnam Wall teaches us. War isn't supposed to ever be romanticized, but it is.

People praise soldiers and demonize the people that oppose the war that they engage in. I am not against soldiers, and I support the men and women of the armed forces, but I don't support them as troops. I support them as human beings, and the way you do that is by avoiding war at all costs.

Am I saying that we shouldn't engage in unmanned, preemptive warfare?

No.

Am I saying that we shouldn't train for war or spend money on research and development of weaponry?

Not at all.

What I am saying is that what the Vietnam Wall teaches us is that war should never be the option we choose, and if it makes our oil a little more expensive by not attacking people, then I'll be ready to make that sacrifice. War is a horrible waste of the God-given gift of reasoning. War is an absence of intelligence. Anyone can shoot a gun, but it takes hard work and skill to deal with the dangerous world we live in with just your wits and your words.

But we should be held to that standard because we are not the weak of head or heart. I don't believe that we can't protect ourselves through the means of promoting positive relationships. To say otherwise is to admit to the defeat of higher reasoning, and thus humanity.

-Muddy