Originally posted by: elzmaddy
For the record, I am strongly against this war. Call me naive, a liberal, a hippie, communist, etc, but this war just seems wrong to me. Instead of all of the arguments which everybody has heard already, I will present my philosophical view.
What is happening now in Iraq is absolutely atrocious to me. Even if this man DOES posess weapons of mass destruction, I do not believe a pre-emptive war can be justified on the possibilty that he MAY use them. Killing people on the possibility that people may be killed. Tens of Americans and hundreds of Iraqi soldiers, perhaps into the thousands now, have been killed needlessly.
We are trapped in a cycle of violence that cannot be stopped with further violence. (ie: you cannot fight fire with fire). Look how far this tactic has gotten the Israelis and Palestineans. It just does not work that way. This pre-emptive attack sets a poor example for the rest of the world and opens the door for future justifications of military conflict. Moreover, I do not believe in creating a hell in the present for a better future. Indeed, this present moment -- the hell that is going on in Iraq -- is the best indicator of what the future will be like. A future of further conflict, destruction and suffering.
Now we could sit here all day and paste facts and statistics back and forth to each other, but that really will not get us far. The cycle of violence is perpetuating itself continously. The justifications for violence will come, no matter how unreasonable, illogical or absurd, as long as people are identified with their minds. For example, your mind tells you that being an American is part of your identity, so you will go to great lengths to defend it, a mentally created image of yourself. Because, if the mental identity dies, you feel part of youself dying. And so your perceptions are governed by fear since this mind-made image of self is constantly under threat. However, ultimately, we are not truly Americans or Iraqis, Christians or Muslims, but human beings. And to see yourself as a human being before your national or religious identity can make things a lot clearer. You will see that there is no one really winning in the battlefield. Everyone, all of humanity, is losing. The fact that everyone identifies with mental positions does not make it any less of an illness. We have seen its manifestations recently on 9/11, and in the past century, where 100 million human beings were killed by their fellow human beings. This is the energy that creates the "us versus them" attitude that makes a fellow human being just like you appear as an enemy, when really, we are all the same. The same energy Bush tapped into to gather support for his war is the same energy Hitler tapped into to rally the German people. Tell them they are under threat of attack, whether physically, ideologically, etc.
We could argue for another hundred years about specifics, and you may curse me for lumping evil terrorists together with brave soldiers valiantly defending their country, comparing our leader with a Nazi, but the roots of the violence are still the same. We are destined to bear the burden of problems, conflict, fear and suffering as long as our identity is rigidly defined by our minds. But you need not cling to any identity other than that of a simple human being. There is a way out of all this madness; it is not just a utopian fantasy. However, the best time to start down this road is now, at this very moment. Thus I demand this war should end immediately and unconditionally for the sake of not just the Iraqis but of all humanity.
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