I’m not about to open any cans of worms on this site and talk about my views on any current wars or political situation or whatever. But recently I’ve made a very general observation that I’d like to share. It seems in today’s world that as Americans, we seem much more accepting of war when other countries, the current international outcry over Iraq who seem to lend some credence to this theory.
Take America, Japan, England, France, Germany, China and Korea. Which country is different from the others? Okay, yes America is possibly the most developed (maybe) nation with the strongest military power, but look at it another way. Of all these countries, with the exception of September 11th, America is the only country to not have a major war on its soil in nearly 150 years. Could it be that war is such a TV, movie idea, that it’s so far removed from the American experience (except for the soldiers) that the average American has really no problem if we invade Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Cuba or Iceland?
As some of you read, I recently returned from South Korea, a country that was almost completely conquered and destroyed during the Korean War. They fought bravely for the freedom of their country and in the end succeeded in securing their country. Every man in South Korea has to serve two years in the military at 18; this is a country expecting the next war to start around lunchtime. Yet, instead attempting to get back by force what was taken from them by the Communists of China and Russia, they are attempting peaceful negotiations with, what everyone clearly deems to be, a madman. They want Korea to be reunified peacefully for all Koreans. If you look further back into their history, it’s a history of thwarted invasions and wars they didn’t start. They are fiercely patriotic, even more so then some Americans, yet they are not trigger happy.
England; my good friend made a great quote about London: he considers it to be the toughest city in the world. 30 years of fighting the IRA, not to mention keeping the entire Germany Air Force at bay in WWII will do that to a city and people. Yet after the bombings there is no public outcry to invade another land. There has been no shift in support for the war. Blair’s popularity hasn’t return to pre-war levels. Japan has nuclear trigger happy North Korea next door. Taiwan has been warned repeatedly not to declare independence or else China will pound them. China touts its military might, but hasn’t engaged in any major warfare in quite some time. Iran is on the edge of war from a possible many fronts.
My point is that the last major war on American soil, where normal people felt the long icy cold finger of war disrupt their everyday lives was in the 1850s. Yet, we seem to more readily accept a war. War seems so far replaced from us that the must it does is affect our viewing of baseball games when they’re interrupted for a special report.
The observation has its flaws, but I think Americans need to take a closer look at war and how it affects people like them. I just finished
Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills, which does an excellent job of describing post-war Nagasaki, wartime Tokyo, as well as conveying the feelings of the people who inhabit these times. At the Korean War Museum in Seoul I got a excellent idea of normal people’s lives in the Southern part of the Korean peninsula during the war.
Yes I do believe America is a great nation and we’ve come a long way, and we’re the most powerful in the world. But I also believe it doesn’t mean we can stop listening. We need to realize that to remain great we need to change with the times and look toward the future, not only in our dealings with the world, but how we look at energy, the environment, our own culture and our people. There’s too much pointless bickering in our government over useless issues: flag burning, vegetative women, sexy cheerleaders, leaked CIA agents, etc. Why don’t we look at Saudi Arabia’s involvement with terrorism (which is considerable), the fact that soon North Korean nukes will be able to strike mainland USA and that the government there isn’t falling apart anytime soon, the monetary powerhouses that are India, China and Korea and how they have and will continue to affect us, who is actually lying about Guantanamo Bay, why are oil prices continuing to sky-rocket and when will they fall, will we ever leave Iraq a free and democratic nation, etc.
What has happened to the great country that stood up to the tyranny of the Iron Curtain and survived to tell the tale? The nation that won WWII and rebuilt the world in the imagine of freedom? We are still here, let’s tell them how to do it right.
Wisdom of the Day: Never agree with me. Rebuttals anyone?
1 Comments:
Um....1850? What about Greasy Grass (white people say Little Big Horn) from 1876-1881? The Apache wars stopped in 1886 (some fought till 1900) Wounded knee in 1890?
War isn't only war when white people kill white people. Take a look here: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1008.html
We declared war on all indigenous nations living in America using germ warfare, terrorism, starvation, concentration camps, etc, etc. There were millions of deaths, and relocations and that has to count as war.
There are still people alive today who recall being beaten by school teachers for speaking their first language, forced to cut their hair, adopt Christianity, etc.
The U.S. caused several nations to go extinct during our conquest of North America, what was done on U.S. soil was far worse than anything we've every done outside. One could argue that we are doing the same thing to Japan, only the Japanese have been taught to WANT many of our ways.
(There wasn't a Slave war, because whites smashed blacks right away, but the cold war between blacks and whites still really hasn't warmed over.)
Anyway, the fact that America is the conquerer now is only a temporary thing. Every country on your list, shaking their fingers should just shut the fuck up, they have all had their empires. And after America is done, if there's a world left, another country will be number 1 and we'll all hate them too.
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