Reflections on...war

Since it is on my mind today, even though I am aware it is not a pleasant beginning and I really don't aim to discourage people from keeping up with my blog, I am creating my first entry of reflections by reflecting on...war.

Following a rather emotional day discussing the complex debates between Israel and Palestine and then about the US presence in Iraq, I somehow ended up watching Atonement, a movie dedicated to war.

First off, it absolutely boggles my mind to think that anyone would ever want to kill another human being. We can talk about it, we can calculate the number of people that do it every day, we can list off the proposed motivations, we can even craft elaborate defenses for those that have done it. But, in the end, I honestly just can't get my mind to wrap itself around the idea of war. It has existed for centuries, tearing across the same slabs of earth so many times that it would be impossible to even quantify how many wars the world has fought. Theoreticians work to classify the different kinds of war, the different magnitudes of war, the differences between a war and a conflict or a battle or a skirmish. We train people in the arts of war, study the tactics of past strategists, decorate our cities with monuments to our own participation in warfare, and all the while convince ourselves that war is an inevitable part of the human experience, a twisted rite of passage into humanity.

At the same time, I personally admire and appreciate the sacrifice of the millions of individuals who have voluntarily fought and participated in the armed forces so that I could sit in the comfort of my home and contemplate the effects of war without having to personally live through them. I do not, for one second, question the sincere devotion, sacrifice, and dedication offered by our servicemen nor would I imply that my reflections on war would lead me to doubt the role of honest, hardworking soldiers that follow orders and protect our freedom. I still have to believe that war can still be justified, that, as in the Book of Mormon, war can be justified for righteous causes and fought by righteous leaders that would only fight as long as necessary and not take advantage of other human beings simply because they could be classified as enemies.

What I question is how we even end up in a position that would require violence and destruction not to mention the time money and mind power invested into training, technology, and tactics. Why, if war is so ugly and devastating, would we keep creating them? Why would we spend so much time and money on continuing them and preparing for potential ones?

General observations... I was just really impacted by some of the propagandized negativity of people blaming governments and shouting down people that don't agree with them and it made me start thinking about these things...feel free to comment.