ok, need to clear up one misconception.
i will never, ever, willingly fight in a war. hell, the MP can come to my house and arrest me, but i will not go and take a gun and shoot someone, who instead of being american and listening to the american propaganda, listens to say, the iraqi propaganda. what it boils down to, is i’m not going to go and kill someone, just because their beliefs are different from mine. anyone who DOES do that, i consider no better than the nazis.
instead of going and killing “unbelievers”, i find it a hell of a lot more useful to go and clear up misconceptions, caused by propaganda. true, it’s a much harder way, but if you think about it, no matter how you put it, it’s a more correct way than going and blowing the snot out of the other side.
Matt Attallah talked about never being a violence free world. you want to know the reason why? it’s because of people who listen to the propaganda of their country, be it “Americans are unbelievers and capitalist pigs,” or “all Arabs are terrorists.” people who don’t know better can’t help but listen to these, and believe that they are true. it’s not their fault, it’s the politicians running the nations. to counter that hatred that has built from lies and not so truthful statements, is pretty hard. you have to prove why all Americans aren’t unbelievers or capitalist pigs, or why all Arabs aren’t terrorists. once you can prove to all these people that they’ve been lied to, you have a much better chance at world peace, because instead of those “filthy Arabs” being terrorists, they’re no different from yourself. no one wants to kill their own family, and no one (at least that i know) would want to kill someone that has nothing against them.
i guess what i’m trying to say is that i’m anti-war, but not anti-action. i want to better the world, not fling megatons of nuclear warheads around and destroy it. America has a bad reputation with the rest of the world. the reason is that we’re arrogant and obnoxious. i agree with the rest of the world. Americans need a reality check. the age of the super powers is over. we can’t run around like we did in the cold war. America instead needs to show the rest of the world that it cares about the rest of the world, as opposed to just the super bowl and such. then, guess what, we’re on our way to a much more peaceful world, and possibly a world without war, but that’s still pushing it.
what needs to happen is for everyone to stop, and just talk with people from other areas of the world. only when you accept and understand why they’re different, can war be avoided. i remember a story (i don’t believe its a true story) about two nations, who sent their children to fight a war. the children got to the battle field, stood, looked across at each other, and dropped their weapons, went to the middle, and had a big picnic with all their food. the adults saw this, and realized that there wasn’t anything different between them, and they went and joined the kids, and all lived happily ever after. yeah, it’s a bit wishful, but it gets my point across. we, as Americans, don’t need to go and blow some heads off of “Arab terrorists.” we need to go and show people that there’s nothing different between us, save appearance. if you can do that, then pretty much anything is possible.
heh)
