While studying war, terrorism, and counter terrorism I've learned a lot more than simple scare tactics and issues that take place within our government. What I've learned is that there are several different ways to approach war, terrorism, and counterterrorism than just simply acting rashly and sending countless lives into a firefight miles away from home.
I'm going to be frank with you. I'm completely against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. What this has led to is nothing more than innocent lives lost, countless American soldiers lost, and a discombobulated national defense here at home. With our efforts faced on solving those around the world, we forget that our primary mission is "to provide for the common defense." This means here in the United States. Sure, if you want to break it down morally, America is justified in their decision to invade Iraq and other areas overseas--but only when it involves them. Otherwise, we're left with the moral issue that keeps representing itself throughout the chapter--that a country has a right to be able to defend itself first and must do so for the betterment of the infrastructure and global image it projects. Basically, having someone come in and "fight your battles for you" doesn't bode well when you're already under attack. This only means that the warring nations will just pick out the situations where the "body guard country" is no longer protecting. It goes on forever.
Also, there is a huge portion of the chapter that discusses the morality of war and terrorism whatsoever. If we are to advance as a planet, towards an imminent peace, we must realize that countering a jarring attack with an equally jarring attack will evoke the same response. The moral issue suggests that war is a neverending cycle and until all opposing sides are killed off or silenced, it never ends. This makes me think--is war really worth it? Is there anything we can do or is it just an inevitable thing that we can't stop? To me, it seems like the best course of action would be to sit down and discuss differences, but the reality of that ever happening is a big fat zero percent. People are too stuck to their own values and too closed minded to realize that there's a BIG world out there and they're missing out.
This is a perfect example of a weakness of utlitarianism --who's doing the calculating! In the decision to invade Iraq and Afganistan, our foreign policy "wonks" did all the utilitarian calculations --including how this would affect our standing in the world, etc. but I can assure you what was NOT considered was the perspective of the ordinary Iraqui or Afgan and what such a war would mean to their country from their perspective.
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