War Can Never Solve Political Problems.

We can never solve political problems by resorting to war. J.G. Bennett says, “War is the supreme manifestation of human helplessness.” War is the supreme manifestation of violence and just as violence is always wrong war is always wrong. The United States is engaged in wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. If we would spend the time and money educating and supporting other countries that we spend in waging war against them, we would have a much greater chance of creating a peaceful world. We are one world and we must realize this to solve world problems.

The United States is involved in a war in Iraq that began shortly after the terrorist attack of nine-eleven. We went to war with Iraq to punish the terrorists who attacked our county even though none of the terrorists came from Iraq. There is also no evidence to show that any of the terrorists that planned the attack were in Iraq. The Bush Administration justified the war in Iraq by saying that there were weapons of mass destruction hidden there and that we had to remove a corrupt dictator who was ravishing his county.

Certainly the terrorists are criminals and need to be punished for the death and destruction that they waged on America. There should be a world wide effort to track down the actual terrorists both those who were involved in setting up the act, and those who were involved in its planning. Waging war on Iraq in no way brought to justice those who were involved in the attack on our country. Just the reverse is true for in destroying the infrastructure of Iraq and in killing thousand of innocent civilians with our bombing raids, we created a recruiting poster for al Qaeda and other terrorists’ groups. Just think, if you saw your parents and other relatives killed by American bombers wouldn’t you hate America and fall for the lies of the al Qaeda recruiters?

We have found that there were no weapons of mass destruction hidden in Iraq. In fact, many of the weapons that were used against our troops in Iraq were weapons that were sold to Iraq or given to the county when they were at war with our enemy Iran.

Another justification for our war with Iraq is that we needed to remove a corrupt dictator. It is true that Saddam Hussein was corrupt and leading his country to ruin. However, there are better ways to remove the dictator than bombing the country, killing its people and destroying its infrastructure.

Hussein was a corrupt greedy man nearing the end of his life. We could have very well offered him several billion dollars to leave his country and live out his last years in peace and luxury on some warm and sunny island. And, he might very well have accepted. You might argue that it is morally wrong to reward a man for his corruption and murder of innocent people. That is true. But, since we have no effective world court that can punish corrupt political murders, getting him out of Iraq in a peaceful way is better than waging war on his county to remove him. And, isn’t there is a higher justice that is served after a man’s death?

We are at war in Afghanistan to fight the radical terrorists that are logged in that country and disrupting the democratic process that has begun there. The Taliban and other radical terrorists’ groups are killing Afghanistan people and destroying property with their terrorist’s acts. United States troops and troops from other nations are hunting down the terrorists, and killing them. The allies are bombing terrorists’ positions and killing civilians though collateral damage.

Again we need to control the damage that the terrorists are doing in this country. We need to stop the terrorists’ groups from planning their attacks, and recruiting new members. Waging war is the wrong way to do this.

If we would invest half the money that we spend on waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan on setting up schools to educate the young of these countries, if we invested in developing agriculture and new industries in these countries, we would do a much better job of defeating the violent activities, and the recruiting of the terrorists.

If young people, boys and girls are educated, if they learn to read and write, and know that they will be able to get jobs when they finish school, they will not feel the need to kill their neighbors or to attack American interests. The Iraq and Afghanistan people are not that much different than the American people. If they are educated and have hope for the future, they will not resort to terrorism.

Krishnamurti says, “You are the world.” We are all human beings. The boundaries that separate us into nation states are artificial and unreal. People all over the world have the same needs and desires. If we could cooperate with each other in fulfilling our economic needs instead of competing with each other in a greedy desire for more and more wealth, there would be no need for war.

What can you and I do to stop our countries from going to war? We need to share the idea that violence never solves any problems. The terrorists need to learn this just as much as the leaders of every country in the world need this knowledge. Many of our worlds’ terrorists are mad men and it is too late to change their thinking. However they will never reach their goals, whatever they may be, by committing acts of violence. Their violent acts will only attract violence against them; if we can spread this word maybe those who are still sane and are attracted to terrorism will change their thinking.

We can encourage our world leaders to be more actively involved in disarmament. We can see that the leader of North Korea who is totally insane is starving his people to death as he races to develop more and more weapons of mass destruction. All the countries of the world should band together to see that nations like North Korea are not sold armaments or goods that will help them build more arms.

When President Obama has offered to cut arms other nations have responded by stating that they would follow the U.S. example. As the world’s leading power we must set the example cutting armament in every way possible. We must discourage the manufacturing of arms and the selling of arms to other countries. Again we can set the example and maybe even encourage the World Court and the United Nations to punish those countries that break non-armament commitments.

War is never the answer to political problems. We must do all we can to find alternative methods to solve the problems of our world and work for the day when war and violence can be totally eliminated.