War = Patriotism?

War should be a last resort. It represents a failure of human beings to transcend their aggressive and territorial natures and utilize their higher potential for creative problem solving, negotiation and compromise; the stuff that separates us from the so-called lower forms of animal life on this planet. Of course there are times when war has seemed unavoidable, even righteous and just. But I suggest that those times are rare and often it is simply the easiest or the only answer we can come up with as a solution to a problem. When all else fails, drop a bomb on it.

As long as people continue to believe that there are appropriate reasons to sacrifice human life for a cause, right or wrong; that the ends justify the means and "our side" can define what the good "ends" are, then we will never learn to seek alternatives. We will never retrain our minds to learn a new trick. Like children fearful and frustrated by a bully, we've tried talking our way out of conflict and with nothing left to do (we think) we pick up the nearest rock and throw it at him. So goes our current American foreign policy.

War is evidence that no matter how far we believe humankind has come; no matter how many Nobel prizes for peace are awarded; no matter the number of countries linked together in the United Nations we have still not learned another way to resolve conflict. Just as the Cro-Magnons before us we resort to the murder of our enemies. I don't have any new ideas or solutions to recommend. I just know that every time we give in to our primal instincts and act in war, we are inhibiting our ability to discover a better answer.

War doesn't equal patriotism or even liberation or heroism. It is not evidence of the love of one's country. War equals famine and poverty, mine fields and missing limbs. It is death and loss and terror. After all this time, war is still Hell.

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