What is war?

"Two soldiers go to war. One comes back and adjusts well, leaving it all behind. The other comes home with post-traumatic stress syndrome and cannot get the faces of the dead out of his mind. Which one them is crazy?" (1)

This is the definition of war according to Merriam-Webster:

1 a (1) : a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2) : a period of such armed conflict 2 a : a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism b : a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war

This is the definition of war according to Wikipedia:

War is a behavior pattern exhibited by many primate species including man, and also found in many ant species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

I prefer the second, though it may not seem "academic" in nature, i find it is relatively accurate. When we exhibit violence, as seen in war, we should be considered beneath ants. For how worse is it to know better and still do wrong? We often see ourselves above the animal kingdom. A society which is meant to rule the world, above all other creatures. When did other human beings begin to fall into the category of other creatures? The obvious argument is since the dawn of time. A few seem to always hold power over many. My hope, however, for this to connect to a few so that we can work to change many... ....

What is war? Is it merely entertainment, as seen in the numerous video games, movies, and television dancing dizzy throughout our lives? Even the news, is it also merely entertainment? Furthermore, has this led to nations who are desensitized? According to Mary Spio of the U.S. Air Force, it is. "Video games that allow players to kill real human beings are desensitizing generations of American society," says Spio. Even Douglas Gentile, an assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University and director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family states, "It is probably more likely to be a vicious circle, where increased interest in war leads to playing these games, which leads to more aggressive feelings and increased negative stereotypes of other cultures, which just fuels more interest in war". (2) So if people who have been to war, and people who study the psychology effects of witnessing "war" on TV, movies, video games and media say we are becoming desensitized, then what are we left to believe?

What is war? Is it history? Is it what has defined our country here in Canada, and others the world over? Or do we in Canada simply jet off to countries in conflict as peace keepers? Its funny how changing the name of something some justifies the action. But if war is so prevalent in our lives, and the lives of those throughout history, why does it feel so far away? The answer to this isn't simply desensitization, it is also what we, as fortunate Canadians do not have to experience, what much of the rest of the world does; FEAR.

Picture this... imagine you are writing a blog, for example, something about how China should free Tibet and how rediculous it is that the USA has done nothing to deter weapons of mass destruction from being waved across teh world by North Korea, yet skips on over to Iraq and Afghanistan, to save us from terrorism. You posted this on the internet so that millions could read if they wanted to. However, it only has to be read by a few people to consider you a threat. You go to bed that night like all the ones before it, sleeping soundly because we live in Canada, a country proud for its fairness and treatment of its population. But all of a sudden sometime around 2AM a loud sound awakens you as the front door is kicked in. Its only seconds before three strangers are in your room, putting a cover over your head and are dragging you from your own house. Hearing the screams of family behind you, calling your name, followed by gun shots. As you are loaded weeping into a vehicle, a voice reassures you that tomorrow the police will arrest the gang members that did this horrible crime to your family. Though you realize this isn't the truth, the rest of Canada will not. You however will spend time being tortured for awhile, to teach you a lesson for posting such "terroristic" information onto the internet, though the tourture is more practice than to really teach you anything other than pain. It won't be too long till you are in a helicopter being flown somewhere far from being found. Here they will cut open your stomach and throw you out into the ocean. (As noted by Naomi Klein in the Shock Doctrine, pg 105) This way you will sink without being found. Gone. Now, try to imagine simply being at school is a crime, speaking against the government is a crime, where others around the world must live in fear that this above senario will happen to them. This is something i had thought about the other day when in one of my classes we signed a petition to aid in freeing Tibet. I wonder, what if someone reads my name and i am murder for standing up for what is right. One former solider once wrote that there are "days he feels like just walking into gunfire and dying without a gun in his hands, so that at least he could meet Jesus unarmed". (3) What are we willing to die for? Do we even understand what it means to give ourlives for a cause? To stand up for injustice? People around the world are, yet us in Canada, who have it is so so so much better than others, allow our government to be tied to the hip of the Americans who believe war is the way.

So what is war? War is death, and life cannot continue where death exists.... because "during times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade under the guise of patriotism" - Howard Thurman, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. If you take away only one thing from my blog I hope it is this....

War is war. We, as Canadians, can and must do better in making this a word that is only used historically.

One thing i read the other day said its not important to make poverty history, it is important to make affluency history. Break the hold the few have over the many. Live with less and Give as blessed.

It is funny how Rememberance Day comes by every year, and despite how proud i am of my country for keeping us free, it is so sad they had to endure such horrors in the world wars, and why they had to occur even at all... There has to be something better for us and those ignored by us, than this... and I pray for us, and them, that we find it.

For as seen in this news report: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100316/world/international_us_af...

We can't rely on governments to keep their word to make change.... It is up to us.

For further reading on others who voice against violence:

Mark Twain's - The War Prayer (unpublished work based upon the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed) http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html

Dorothy Day - http://www.catholicworker.com/ddaybio.htm

Peter Maurin - http://www.catholicworker.com/maurinjf.htm

References:

(1) Claiborne, S, & Haw, C. (2008). Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Simple Way. (212).

(2) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-09-war-video-games-inside...

(3) Clairborne, S, & Haw, C. (2008). Jesus for President, (213).