Enchiridion Militis

“Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.”

These are the words of Abraham Flexner, an American educator who had a vital role in medical education reform during the early 1900s. Flexner’s words are very powerful and in a way almost scary. He suggests that war essentially destroys civilization and that with it, civilization will disappear altogether.

At first the words seem shocking to the point where some may call them absurd, but upon further scrutiny it is evident that he is right, and that is even more shocking. Think about all wars and all of the destruction they have caused. All of those buildings, people, and ideas destroyed. All of that which belonged to civilization. Wars only create destruction and history has proven that they fail at solving conflicts because if they didn’t why would we still have wars and problems? The idea that war is necessary is just absurd. The only justification for war should be in defense and that is it because in defense you are trying to prevent destruction.

Fear mongering is perhaps the strongest weapon the government has in order to convince its people that they need war. Living is fear is a very dangerous thing and we must always think twice before blindly supporting our government because of it. It is fear that leads to facist and communist governments and it is fear that makes people go against their conscience.

Living in fear makes us lose our individualism and our liberty. Governments have used fear as a means of provoking war for ages. We still see it today, with speeches that claim that a certain country hates our people and has the weapons to hurt us. We saw it in our own nation with Iraq, when President Bush and his administration made claims of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, also known as WMDs. The fear of Sadaam Hussein having these weapons made many Americans and Congress support the war in Iraq. It has led to thousands of innocent people, including Americans being killed. We did not find any weapons. Was is worth it? Think twice before you let fear guide you because it will only lead to rash decisions, which you may later regret.

War is an event that is started by politicians, yet fought by the young. Throughout history governments have taken their countries to war, knowing that they would not actually be fighting them. Some wars have been long and treacherous, while others have been short and not as gruesome. Yet, at the end of the day almost always people have died. People who have families, people who have friends, and people who belonged to a community.

Those that come back from war come back in a new state- one in which their perspective on life has totally changed. Many end up becoming depressed due to what they have seen and some even wish that it had been them who had died instead of their fellow soldiers. War is a gloomy and depressing experience and it is something that no one should ever have to go through. Almost all soldiers come back from war with an anti-war political stance because they don’t want others to go through what they have gone through. We can see it in countless books, periodicals, and journals throughout history. From Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five to Tim O’Brien’s The Things they Carried the anti-war message is an especially strong one among veterans of war. We can also see this in the way that veterans and people in the army vote.

Yet, some of us who have not been in war fail to do anything about it. We still stand by our government’s pointless wars and the spread of hatred. It is really unfair to the people who have to fight these wars and the loved ones of these soldiers. There are only a few reasons to support war such as to get freedom or to defend oneself. All other wars are really pointless and simply acts of aggression driven by the power in the hands of political leaders. When will we as a society realize this? When will we tell our leaders that enough is enough and that we don’t want these pointless wars?

Welcome to Enchiridion Militis, which in Latin means “a soldier’s handbook.” This blog was created in order to analyze war and what it means. Its intention is to really question whether or not we need it and what war has done to society and the world. War has been a part of man’s history on the planet almost since we first came into existance, yet what has is really done for us? How long will we continue to kill our young for the sake of old grudges and political plays created by people who don’t even go near the danger? Why is it that we think war solves problems, when in reality we have had war for over 6,000 years, yet our problems only seem to be growing? Join me on this journey as we question the premisice of war and what it has done to humanity and our world.