My Thoughts on War

Chapter 5

I understand what drives a Country to go to war and I support the men and women who take on the responsibility to fight the battles that ensue.  What I don’t understand is that we spend our whole lives getting taught to love one another and to work our problems out in a civil manner and we then grow up to teach our children those same values yet wars still continue on throughout the ages.  Is it because people in other cultures don’t support these same values?  Is that why we find ourselves fighting for the rights of others when they are being taken advantage of?  Will humanity as a whole ever learn that love and respect is the key to living in peace and harmony with each other?  I read The War Prayer written by Mark Twain and I have to say that I was sickened by the images that were portrayed of the war.  In the first paragraph, the feeling of the country was described as “a time of great and exalting excitement” (Twain, 2010) as if war is an exciting event.  Twain went on to say that the “drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering” (Twain, 2010) which to me just glorified the war but how can war be presented in this way?  We’ve learned so much over the years and throughout the many wars of history and at least today we don’t paint a rosy picture of this horrible event.  War is ugly and it costs many lives and although it may be an inevitable event I still hope for the day that we can settle our differences through respectful means.

 

Twain, M. (2010). The War Prayer. In M. &. Krasny, Sound Ideas (p. 388). New York: McGraw-Hill.