Kids grow up thinking war is cool. History, after all, is largely just a study of various wars, the way that it is taught in school today. I remember learning American history, which according to the school system consists of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, various overseas adventures in the Phillipines, etc., and then WW1, WW2, the Korean War, the Viet Nam war, and the Gulf Wars. I probably forgot to mention a few invasions of places like Grenada, Panama and elsewhere throughout South America. All our citizens are indoctrinated to believe war is the answer to almost every problem. Men like to watch war movies, because they find it exciting and an outlet for natural male aggression. War is interesting to watch from the vantage point of television, when your own rear end is not on the line. We have a large population of armchair generals that tend to vote Republican.
I'm not immune to the fascination with war. Beginning in the third grade, I read everything I could get my hands on about the Civil War, the Napoleonic wars, and most of all, WW2, "the good war," but tend to forget the names of all the various battles. Most teaching of history leans heavy upon dates, names, and places, and while these are indeed important, to me the bigger issue history needs to inform us about is "Why?" Why indeed did Napoleon spend his career constantly on the march? Who was he trying to emulate? Who profited from his military adventures? Who suffered from them? What were the ultimate results? It is easier from the perspective of a history teacher to grade a multiple-choice exam that simply focuses on dates, names, and places, but that data is just the tip of the iceberg.
Instead of thinking war is cool, I think there's much more to be said about science, research, and technology. If we consider all the progress that has been made in the world, most of it derived from science. What has war accomplished, other than destruction? History should focus more upon scientists rather than the supposed "great leaders" who wasted their nation's wealth and blood on wars.
The lesson that a young boy named George W. Bush took from school was that "great leaders" lead their nations during wartime. Their greatness consists of being firm, unyielding, and appearing tough. In reality, these great men were butchers at best. They were neither wise nor great. Was Napoleon great to break his peace treaties with England and to later invade Russia? Was Lyndon B. Johnson great to escalate our involvement in Viet Nam? Better leaders avoided war when possible, leaders such as Queen Elizabeth. There aren't many examples of leaders avoiding war in the United States.
There are many unnecessary wars. What did the war in Viet Nam accomplish? What did the Gulf Wars accomplish? The infatuation with war that certain nations have blinds them to the great alternative, science. If your country invests in science instead of war, then your economy will grow much faster than others. Your people will be healthier; your products, more competitive. Most empires have wasted their treasure upon war, instead of investing in research that might have improved their lot in the world. Whether you consider the Roman Empire, the British Empire, or the American Empire, they wasted their money on constant warfare. What if they had instead devoted all of their energies toward science?
Today, the United States lags behind in science, because our leaders are misguided. They do not comprehend that more can be accomplished in the laboratory than in the battlefield. Killing an enemy today creates new enemies tomorrow; violence begets violence. The arrogance and short-sightedness of the hawks has wasted the vast majority of the nation's wealth. This was also true in Roman times and in all times. Unfortunately one of the shortcomings of the human race is that it has not evolved much from apelike ancestors. Violence rules the mind of man.
Let us say, for the sake of argument, that you have an enemy, who is savage, ignorant and fanatical. He tries every means at his disposal to provoke you. However, he is separated from you by geography and cannot easily get at you. Most of his activity is spent in verbal provocation, because he fears you and does not have the will or means to attack except for rare, isolated incidents. You have two possible responses. You can devote every waking hour and all of your money toward harming this enemy, who is wily and skilled at hiding from you. Bear in mind, once you begin a war, all your money and energies will be consumed in that war. Instead of solving other problems, you will only be focused upon that one problem, the war, which overshadows all else. Your nation could fall apart from neglect. Is harming your enemy so very important?
The other possible response is the exercise of patience and restraint. You can remain watchful, yet also be industrious. Instead of spending your time and energy upon war, you can spend it upon improving your lot. In this time of watchful waiting, your enemy, who seeks conflict and does not find it with you, may find himself in conflict with others, because his nature tends toward conflict. He may survive or he may perish in those conflicts. After much time, your enemy will pass from this world in one way or another.
The key is being able to wait, instead of being in a hurry to get your own personal brand of "justice." If you are driven by base impulses, like George W. Bush, then you will make a monumental error and squander a trillion dollars trying to kill a few savages in the cesspools of the world. All politicians should be tested on whether they understand the virtues of patience, meditation, analysis, mediation, negotiation, and the drawbacks of war. George W. Bush did not understand much of anything, except for what to say and how to appear in order to rise in politics. It is unclear what virtues he ever had other than a group of rich cronies in the Republican Party.
Instead of reading the Bible, George W. Bush would have profited more from reading textbooks on history, science, social science, and politics. His Christian faith is an embarrassment to Christians, many of whom would prefer that he were atheist, so as not to represent them in any way. Rather than carrying out the instructions of Jesus Christ, George W. Bush seemed to be moved by another entity, located in a different supernatural realm. Anytime that a man lets himself be seen praying in public, hold onto your wallet. He is more than likely a villain. Those who do not understand the first thing about ethics find it convenient to cloak themselves in religion, which defends them against charges of immorality. For a similar reason, George W. Bush made much of the fact he did not drink alcohol. I am reminded of another politicians who did not drink, Adolf Hitler, and a politician who did, Winston Churchill.
Why couldn't we have had Al Gore for President instead of George W. Bush? Maybe Gore was a nerd, but a nerd wouldn't be so bad in the White House. I bet Gore would have spent money on science instead of a pointless foreign war.
There are other problems in the world more grievous than whether a small group of terrorists bombed a large building and killed thousands in New York City. There are tens of thousands, no, hundreds of thousands being killed every year from diseases that could be cured, if we only had enough knowledge. Knowledge can be gained by research, but research requires money and will, two things that war sucks away like a greedy vampire. It may be more fun to attack a human enemy, but if we attacked our microscopic enemies, such as the HIV virus, then more good would come to us and to the entire world. Imagine right now if George W. Bush had read more than just the Bible and had enough wisdom to spend a trillion dollars on research to cure cancer, AIDS, and many other illnesses. Instead of many people dying and suffering in our country and throughout the world, there would be lives saved. People would praise the name of George W. Bush instead of curse it.
The truth is that Bush deserved a million shoes being thrown at him, because he has harmed millions of people, most of all the Iraqis, but also Americans, who have suffered a huge drop in their personal wealth. Even conservative Republicans that voted for Bush have been punished severely for their vote. The country was neglected for eight long years while our President concentrated his mind upon Iraq. However, Iraq is not a state within the United States. The President was elected to govern in the U.S., not in the Middle East. George W. Bush suffered a schizophrenic break with reality in which he fancied himself the leader of the Middle East. He may never be brought to justice for all of the crimes committed by himself and his Administration, but that does not diminish the evil that he committed, which will forever be associated with his name.
George W. Bush was the most ignorant President we have endured possibly in the entire history of the country. I hesitate to blame the educational system entirely, because Bush came of a wealthy family and had every opportunity to educate himself. I think that some people are guilty of "willful ignorance," in which the facts are available to them, but they choose to believe whatever seems convenient to them. Thus, Bush's ignorance is the result of his inherent wickedness, rather than an intellectual deficiency or the failure of education. If only he had accepted one single idea, which can be expressed with three words, "science > war." That means science is greater than war. Part of the psychological problem with George W. Bush's religious faith is that he rejects both reason and science in favor of faith. The rejection of reason leaves only the impulses to move our decision-making process. Faith leads to following the impulses, which being mostly violent due to the limitations in the human species, leads to war.
Science has solved a multitude of problems already, from communication with faraway people to transportation across long distances. There is much more yet to be discovered. As an example, how about a truly effective dental rinse? From an early age, I detested brushing my teeth and flossing even more. I always wondered whether there might be a better way to clean teeth. What is needed is a rinse containing helpful bacteria that can eliminate all of the starches clinging to teeth. This may be possible or it may not. If so, billions of dollars could be saved on dental care. This is just a small example of the cool things that science can do to make human life healthier and more pleasurable. It's a small example of the many opportunities wasted by the one trillion dollar cost of George W. Bush's Iraq adventure. I hope that our ex-President enjoyed the war and had a great deal of fun thinking about it, if not participating in it himself. For the rest of the country, it was not a fun experience, and I can think of a million different ways I would have preferred one trillion dollars to have been spent. Such as on an effective dental rinse.
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