June 20, 2009
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War Can Never Be Accepted
Here is what I found to be an amazing talk by activist and historian Howard Zinn. It directly contradicts the idea that the Civil War/ American Revolution/ and World War II were morally justified wars. The talk was entitled “Three Holy Wars”.
Watch. Enjoy.
Comments (5)
War can never be accepted! I seconded this.
Whether we accept it or not, war is inevitable. So long as there is evil in this world, war will follow. I understand the idea of peace, and the desire to see it achieved. What I’m not sure most fully understand though, is that it will not ever happen. Why? Because there will always be those who want power, who revel in death and destruction. So long as those individuals exist, war will also be a reality.
I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole video, but there are some great points made here. Often, the ‘benefits’ of a war may be packaged and sold to the largely deceived public. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that all wars are unjustified. Repelling an invasion may sometimes be in the best interests of a citizenry, for instance. But a lot of the ‘changes’ brought about by wars could have been achieved, possibly even expedited, in other ways. Sometimes the war itself actually makes the problem fought in its name even worse or brings about a less-than-desirable resolution. It pays to look beyond the passion and rhetoric at what is really going on, rather than what is presented.
Jesus, Kellen, you posted a 30-minute-plus video. lol. I don’t have time to watch it all today but hopefully I’ll have more free time tomorrow.
But I see the guy’s point about “three wars you can’t say anything bad about”. World War 2, for instance. It’s interesting that two of the greatest anti-war novels written in America- Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five- were authored by World War 2 veterans, writing about World War 2 itself. The author of Catch-22, Joseph Heller, was Jewish, and he didn’t seem to believe that World War 2 had anything to do with preventing the Holocaust, though this is a common misperception today. He seemed to think it was just more greedy warmongering… completely unjustified.
…But I do think that America’s involvement in WW2 put a stop to the Holocaust, so even if that wasn’t the government’s motivation for getting America involved, it was something good that came out of it. That’s an unfortunate angle to war- sometimes it has positive effects. The American Revolution may have been completely unjustified, but I wouldn’t particularly want to be English, either….
That’s probably how they keep war going in this world. The same way they keep capitalism going (to any degree). There are positives that make the negatives easier to swallow.
I don’t think I have a right to comment on Civil War and American Revolution. Anyway, he has a point about who profited and who wanted the wars.
But I will comment on WW2.
For me, it’s a classic example how selfish and not-caring people can get. I’m not justifying over 50 milion people dead, because it’s total failure of sense of logic, failure of high politicians.
Hitler was known many years before WW2 and I would have no problems justifying let’s say 5 milion people dead during intervention to dismiss the Nazi Party.
But people do this all the time. We avoid dealing with problems, we think they’ll just walk away, but guess what, it grows. Problems are like a disease, like a sink full if dirty dishes. You can ingore it, but one day, to put it in modern way, you will get pwned.
So saving lives? Hell yeah.
Pacifism? Hell no.