Last year during campaign season, moveon.org made a commercial in response to a comment made by John McCain that he would do anything it took to win the war in Iraq, including keeping our troops there for 100 years.
Tim and I were just sitting on the couch yesterday and for some reason this ad came into my mind. And I couldn't help but think, what about Atticus?
In my Political Science 472 class, we reconceptualize war and international relations from a maternal perspective. We say that women know the cost of human life, having sometimes gone to the brink of death to bring forth new life. As mothers, we know the cost of every fingernail, every hair on that tiny little body nestled up to ours. Every moment spent puking up my food, all the heartburn, the aches and pains, the pushing for two hours... that brought this little guy into the world.
After you give birth, your body always retains living cells that were once part of your baby. They circulate in your bloodstream. A part of Atticus will always be a part of me. All women experience this phenomenon. And as a result, we take more into consideration when it comes to waging a war that destroys human life.
I've been pretty anti-war for a while now. I think war is justified in very few circumstances. But having a baby boy and thinking about him being shot at or having his body (that same body that nestles so perfectly against my chest at the moment) ripped apart by a bomb... I can't help but despise war. It's not a political decision for me anymore. It's a mother's perspective. To me, it is so senseless to birth these beautiful boys and let them grow up and blow each other to bits. For what? Politics and pride. Skewed ideas about religion. Hate. Pure, unadulterated hate of another people.
As far as I know, everyone who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a volunteer. No draft, right?
ReplyDeleteAlso, if we take a non-interventionist approach to that area of the world, what's to stop the boys there from blowing each other to bits, not to mention the oppressing of and violence towards women?
What's your solution?
On the second part, I think you don't solve any conflict with conflict. You don't teach your kids not to hit by hitting. I think, just like in a family, you have to try everything BUT violence and oppression to to stop violence and oppression. I'm definitely open to defensive wars where our country has been openly attacked, like WWII. I think the only other times war might be justified is genocide, where one group is systematically wiping out another and not just a civil war. I think both of these have to be a last resort.
ReplyDeleteThat's just my opinion, but I think there are some pretty strong scriptural backing for thinking this way.
And, just for the record, I'm not a big fan of this video. I think it is overly dramatic and political, but that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a solution, but we tried violence and obviously failed at it. The situation of women in Iraq is worse than it was before we intervened.
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