War

I HATE war!

My father was a pacifist all his life until he read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. After that he wrote to all the national newspaper’s and magazines to which he often sent political and social comments saying “I have been a life-long pacifist, but Hitler is different and the United States must build its capacity for an inevitable war with him.”

Since the Second World War was the most overwhelming experience of my childhood, I have never been a pacifist, but I hate war with an overwhelming passion.

War destroys all those involved with it, not just those killed and physically maimed. I have no idea what we will learn about the staff sergeant who perpetrated the horrible atrocity in Afghanistan, but he and the men who urinated on the corpses of dead human beings and thousands of others have been stripped of their humanity by war. Many will struggle and succeed in controlling their rage and horror within themselves for a lifetime embittered by their youthful degradation by war. But I fear we will see copy-cat atrocities.

I honor those who choose to serve their country in the military and I know that many generals and military leaders understand the horror of war. Somehow, we must convince all governments that war is almost always at best a temporary solution which will create worse problems in the long run. All my life I have supported the idea of an inescapable draft (with suitable service for those who cannot, in good conscience, serve in the military), so that everyone would be forced to think of the horrors of war for their own family.

PLEASE let us not go to war in Syria or Iran! I hope we can somehow convince Israel not to start a war with Iran. I fully and deeply understand Israel’s fear of nuclear annihilation by Iran, but war will likely only postpone and make more certain a confrontation. The tragic consequences of a long period of war psychology is all too obvious in Israel and in my own beloved United Sates.

Anything short of giving up civilization is always preferable to war!