Everyone should know about the Iraqi War and so-called "War on Terrorism" that's happening across the seas by now. And if you haven't, crawl out from under your rock and pick up a newspaper. Started in 2001, after the tragedy of 9/11, the war involves US troops being shipped halfway across the world to fight in a war on foreign land.
This brings up alot of inquiries and topics, such as Nationalism and Patriotism... The only way our government could have garnered up enough support for the invasion of Iraq is by using the tragedy that happened on September 11th and make us all believe that it was specifically targeted at us the citizens. Nationalism comes up when the government grouped almost every person in the country as a whole and declared that the foreigners across the sea were savages and terrorists. The government played on our patriotism by firing us all up against the "enemies of our nation".
I never truly did understand the politics and ingenuity behind wars and terrorism... The only things I know is what the government-controlled mass media feeds us daily. Humans are herd animals by nature. They have a need to be with others; to think the same as others... They are very suggestive this way. Feed a person enough crap and they'll begin to believe in it. I'm not really a religious person, but I guess the Bible was somewhat right when it called human beings being "sheep" and the certain few individuals who actually dare to think and lead "shepherds".
They say that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction somewhere in their country, but I don't see any massive missiles being fired into the sky. They say terrorists are psychotic killers who murder people by the hundreds, and yet why is the most damage being done to cities and civilians by US troops? Yes, alot of people died in the World Trade Center, but is that any reason to condemn the deaths of thousands across sea?
" The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic. "
~Erich Remarque
This quote, first made by the German writer Erich Maria Remarque, is often miscredited to Joseph Stalin. Yeah, terrorists crashed a plane into the World Trade Center and killed hundreds of people. All we're doing is dropping thousands of megatons of explosives into the country of Iraq... It's totally fair. Have you ever stopped to think that the innocent civilian who just died when his house was the target of a US bomb had his own family? That he was completely uninvolved with the few people who actually caused the 9/11 tragedy to happen? No... We just look at them and say "Oh, he's an Iraqi. He must be working with Al Qaeda and the Taliban."
Let's take a step back for a minute and imagine ourselves to be someone living in Iraq right now. Who do you think seems more deserving of the name terrorist? The few radicals that are fighting with your government in a civil war for their beliefs, of the foreign strangers who drop explosives into your city day after day and send soldiers with tanks blasting away in your streets? Gee... such a tough question...
Where does society draw the line nowadays? The US spends about 45% of it's annual budget to fund military aspects and war efforts. Is our government full of war mongers? Is it the other country's fault for involving us? Or is it because we, the citizens, are drawn to violence and fighting? No matter the reason, the end result is always the same: People crying and people dying. Violence is violence, no matter how you categorize it or justify it.
Wanna know something funny? Every war the US has been in was to protect our own economy and find a way to monopolize imperialism. The Revolutionary War was fought because the colonies did not wish to pay any more taxes to Great Britain, and instead wished to keep the money for themselves, including the various trading goods and import/export system they had. The US was involved in the Latin American Revolution, since they wished to keep the trading ports in the Caribbean, and to monopolize Mexico and the other Latin countries. Hell, even the Monroe Doctrine was created so that Americans would dominate the Western hemisphere, giving them complete control over the economy and trade. Another good example would be the US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those two countries have been fighting civil wars and revolutions for the better part of the 21st Century, and yet the US was completely ignorant of that. But the minute the fighting threatened to affect the import/export of oil or anything else that was to the best interest to America, we immediately dispatched troops and money overseas. And now to quote a long dead philosopher whose words bear repeating...
" All wars are fought for money. " ~Platos
Sidenote: Holy crap! 800 words... And all I did was type whatever came to my head right on the spot.
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