An American soldier starts to think

Americans are beginning to realise that they are barbarians.
This is a beautiful testimony by a man who fought hard and then saw the evil of his ways.

"We, in America refer to ourselves as civilized and people from other

countries still living the simple life are backwards and uncivilized,

but what is civil about the capability to create atomic weapons? What

is civil about being able to kill over 100,000 people with just one

bomb? We may be more technologically advanced but are we more

civilized? I think the answer is no. War has to be considered the

absolute enemy of mankind. Where we would be without it? I would

presume that we as a nation would be out of debt if we were to apply

as much energy to pursuing sound economics as we do pursuing war, we

would never get sick if we spent as much on preventive medicine as we

do on war, the elderly would get affordable prescription medication

if we were to use the resources that are spent on war to work for

that purpose, there would not be un educated children if we were to

buy new classrooms and books for schools instead of new weapons

systems, social security would be a lot more secure with some of the

money that war costs.

Why do we want to train the young people in the world that the only

way we can settle our differences is to kill one another? Why

shouldn't we train them to become surgeons or homebuilders? Why

shouldn't we train to become anything but killers? I think that the

world would be better off if we were to do that instead. I have

talked to veterans from every war from WWII on and their opinion is

that the wars they fought were to be the last war ever fought. How

many more are we going to fight before we realize that the act of war

is for small minded people that are intent in only satisfying their

own needs and not the needs of the people in general? I do not want to

be killed because I am living in a place that has a ruler that wants

to go to war with any one.

The only way to bring peace to the world is to let the people of the

world decide for themselves what they want to spend their efforts on.

I feel that in this day and age governments start wars, and not

people, and since the governments want the wars then why don't we let

the government fight the war? All of the politicians that want to

fight a war are free to trade places with me at any time. I will

gladly go and learn war no more.

There are activities that I have been involved in that have led me to

these new and developed beliefs, and they are numerous but I can tell

you some of them. When you walk in the woods and you see a deer stand

and look at you, or you are on the river in the morning and the mist

rises off the water while you hear the morning calls of the river

birds, and the otters just lie there as you glide past in your boat

and don't even move, you know that there is a better way. When you

can find solitude in the woods that are so filled with peace and the

wildlife that is all around you, you feel the better way all around.

A person must acknowledge the fact the we are a part of the universe

and the universe does not want to be out of sorts with itself, so why

do we spend so much effort on trying to be out of sorts with others

of the human race?

I have been to the war zone and I have seen the devastation it causes.

Why can't everyone agree that war is the most repugnant of all human

endeavors? Why is it considered noble to be able to look through the

sights of a rifle and kill another human being from 300 meters away?

Why are you a hero if you can throw a hand grenade farther than the

next guy in the foxhole? Shouldn't these young men and women that are

in the army be throwing footballs or baseballs or softballs instead?

It would impress me a lot more to see someone make the winning free

throw at the basketball game or kick the winning extra point at the

football game, or knock in the winning run at the World Series than

to see them be able to shoot more humans from 300 hundred meters. I

would rather they spend their time at the golf course or the tennis

courts or in college, any where but in the war zone trying to survive

and having to kill to do it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Sgt Kevin Benderman"