5/29/2005: Memorial Day
I have never understood war.
We teach our children not to hit or shove to get their way. We chastise them for bullying, for using a "show of strength" to win over weaker children. Yet as a nation, these things are deemed ok.
An adult can get arrested, jailed, and sued for assaulting another. Yet as a nation, these things are deemed ok.
Of course the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington were heinous, and yet, we have all been taught that two wrongs don't make a right.
War supporters say it's a necessary evil of society, that there is no other way to settle differences between nations.. I would have thought we as a species would be more evolved than this by now. People point to the animal kingdom and say it's natural, this hostility within species. Yet we pride ourselves as being "better" than the animals we share the planet with in most every other way.
We were all taught in school about the great Cradle of Civilization, the Tigris and Euphrates Valley of ancient Mesopotamia. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run through what is now Iraq; Baghdad sits on the banks of the Tigris. Is it ironic that bombsights are now focused on the "Cradle of Civilization", or that parents read their children bedtime stories about Ali Baba, Sinbad, and Sheherezade after watching the war on the nightly news? Is it any more ironic that we dropped immunization supplies for children's diseases over Baghdad just a few months before we began dropping bombs on those same children?
Many wars have been fought in the name of religion, and in many more wars, including this current one, religious differences are at least a subtle undertone of justifying warfare; and yet virtually every religion that wars are fought over teach that killing is wrong. War is just legalized killing, and legalizing something doesn't make it right.
In particular I don't understand those individuals, groups, and power-holders who have put the USA's recent wars into place and who support them, and at the same time proclaim that abortion is murder, that killing an innocent life is wrong. I don't understand the duality of their logic that says "killing is ok, but killing is not ok."
Nevertheless I salute those servicemen and women who have lost their lives in the armed forces, particularly those who were drafted and served against their will. It's all such a waste of humanity, of individuality, and of the vast unknown potential of those who died too soon.
And I am a bit saddened that for many, "Memorial Day" has come to mean nothing more than a day off work, a long weekend, and a barbecue.
"Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
More people vote for "American Idol" than for the Presidency. Most who survived World War I - the "Great War", the "Worst War", the "War to End All Wars" - have died, and those who survived World War II are following all too quickly. Many high school students do not know what the Holocaust was.
Yes, the dual atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II, but at what cost? 45,000 and 22,000 instant deaths respectively, plus 19,000 and 17,000 more in the following four months, plus thousands of deaths from the deadly effects of radiation later.. not to mention the untold injuries, and of course, two thriving city centers - not military installations - that were completely destroyed. The only "weapons of mass destruction" of this scale used against humanity were used by the USA. Would WWII have ended if those bombs had been dropped on us? I have been to both cities, and it was literally a life-changing experience. I can't recommend highly enough a visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and each of their Peace Parks at their respective "ground zero" bomb epicenters.
In the years following WWII, atomic bomb testing was performed on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. This photo shows the crater left by the "Bravo" hydrogen detonation on March 1, 1954 which wiped out three islands. Descendants of the atoll's 167 residents evacuated for the nuclear testing are still waiting to return home.
Original videos of Bikini Atoll nuclear tests:
Bikini "Able" nuclear blast July 1, 1946 mpeg video
Bikini "Baker" nuclear blast July 25, 1946 mpeg video
Bikini "Bravo" hydrogen blast March 1, 1954 mpeg video
Check May 29 links for several related Keyhole views
