Tuesday, November 22, 2005

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"

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