Wars. I destest wars. Whether they are necessary or not I can't really say. Israelis certainly have a worse problem of defense than the US in their wars. Our wars are more of an intellectual decision to prevent this or that or "send a message". The Israelis are not sending messages they are destroying their enemy in whatever way works.
The thing about war that bothers me the most is a half-assed war, when neither side really achieves anything concrete. The cause of the conflict remains, and this means it is very like to pop up again. Pulling weeds is like that. If you just mow the dandelions it just scatters the seeds every which way and there will be more the next time.
I'm not going to invoke the name of religion or whether something is holy or not. War can't be holy in the true sense of the word. People claim that their war is holy, or that the other guy is unholy. Whatever. From the point of view of the man in the moon, nobody is more holy than anybody else. Death is just death. Nothing holy about it. Death creates anguish and the desire for payback. Except, as Machiavelli seemed to imply, you make sure the bloke and all his cronies get dead together.
I don't want the Islamists to win. They seem the most medieval. I don't want to live in a world of medieval kings and religious dogmas. But I don't want to be the man with a gun, shooting everything that might threaten me, either. Blowing away people from 8 miles high is not all that manly, but it is antiseptic.
The thing about war that bothers me the most is a half-assed war, when neither side really achieves anything concrete. The cause of the conflict remains, and this means it is very like to pop up again. Pulling weeds is like that. If you just mow the dandelions it just scatters the seeds every which way and there will be more the next time.
I'm not going to invoke the name of religion or whether something is holy or not. War can't be holy in the true sense of the word. People claim that their war is holy, or that the other guy is unholy. Whatever. From the point of view of the man in the moon, nobody is more holy than anybody else. Death is just death. Nothing holy about it. Death creates anguish and the desire for payback. Except, as Machiavelli seemed to imply, you make sure the bloke and all his cronies get dead together.
I don't want the Islamists to win. They seem the most medieval. I don't want to live in a world of medieval kings and religious dogmas. But I don't want to be the man with a gun, shooting everything that might threaten me, either. Blowing away people from 8 miles high is not all that manly, but it is antiseptic.
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