The Nature of War

black-36414_640
Twenty-two years of mental tears
 Cries a suicidal Vietnam vet
 Who fought a losing war on a foreign shore
 To find his country didn't want him back
Their bullets took his best friend in Saigon
 Our lawyers took his wife and kids, no regrets
 In a time I don't remember, in a war he can't forget
 He cried, 'Forgive me for what I've done there
 Cause I never meant the things I did.
-- "Something to Believe In" by Poison

The Reality of War

My father was a Vietnam veteran in the United States Marine Corps. He fought for his country in that war but he felt that it was a war that we should have never been in. He told me first hand experiences about fighting in that war, what he and his fellow Marines had to do. He also told me about his welcome home — about being spit on, threatened, and treated terribly just for trying to survive a war.

Our history lessons cover what was done over there by our troops, but never what they went through. Dad used to tell me that there were children that would come up to him or his fellow Marines and they would be crying, begging for help with bombs strapped to them, and of the children and women that were used as human shields. It is endless, the atrocities that were witnessed by many of our military members in Vietnam and in other areas that have been war torn.

Passing Judgment

During the time of the Vietnam war, the returning military members were called baby killers and spat on for their “crimes” that they did over there. While there was some that did do horrible things for the pleasure of it, many did what they had to do just to survive. It is so easy to sit and pass judgment on the ones that go into these areas while those passing judgment are never in those places and most likely never will have to be.

But, here is a question for you, my readers:

Should the military be blamed, or the powers that be?

The Spiritual Aspect

Ephesians 6:12:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

This darkness has to feed off of something, though, and I think one of the main things is war, especially war that is based upon hatred of someone else and of someone different. Military is just used as human chess pieces. I say that because, oftentimes, the people of the warring countries are fed propaganda about the evils of the other side. This is used to create an “us versus them” mentality and a feeling of solidarity among the people within the military, like what was done with our most current wars, for instance. The Twin Towers fell because of a terrorist attack, and we, somehow as a country, end up going to war, first with Afghanistan and then Iraq. Propaganda has been spread against Muslims, screaming of the evil that is Islam and how Islam is the greatest threat to the peace of the world, and the ironic thing is, the same thing is being spread to these countries where the fringe Islamists (the extreme ones) are in power, only it is being said about Americans and Christians.

This is not a battle of Christian against Muslim or American against Middle Easterner; this is just another tactic to divide the world’s people and to cause strife, and to spread hate and fear so that a few may remain in power, and many of us are playing into it because of the under-evolved part of our brain.

The Biological Aspect

Within the human brain, there are two parts. One is the upper part, the mammal part of our brain, and it is highly evolved. It is the one where we are able to reason out problems, critically analyze, learn, socialize, and function in day to day society. But there is another part underneath that that is pure animal instinct, and it is where our instinct to survive, procreate, eat, and so forth resides. It is also the one where flight or fight comes in.

With many military members, they are trained to let this part of their brain take over so that they are better able to survive in conditions that they can be placed in. They are also trained to use their highly evolved brain with it to reason out the best solution for how to survive, and to analyze the situation, such as in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, when they were put in situations where they had no choice but to survive somehow, someway. It is also done to the citizenry by having us shut down our highly evolved brains and instead just react to something that we perceive as a threat, which is often what the media tells us are threats.

The Nature of War

The nature of war is not holy. There is no holy crusade or anything else. It is a tool used by corrupt men so that they may stay in power and that they may try and create their own personal empires in the world. And we allow them to whenever we respond to hate with hate, anger with anger, and when we refuse to understand. That is why we need to reach out in love and in peace.

The nature of war is also one that will prey upon the most desperate of people — people that want school paid for, people in areas with no jobs, and people who are just wanting out.

 

Edited by DH.