Are Wars Fought As Acts Of Ego?

The answer is yes as men battle for power readily sacrificing the lives of others in their quest. Starvation is just another weapon, as is chemical and biological warfare, drones and anything else they can get their hands on.

Of course this conduct is unacceptable and no-one would sacrifice his or her life to fight such a war. Therefore the leaders who wage war must present it as a noble cause in the glowing and indisputable language of freedom or to honor God under what ever name God is called.

Believe it or not, wars are also fought to bring peace. World War One was supposedly such a war, as is the Afghan War today and as were the recent Iraq and Libyan Wars.

And in part, so was the rise of the Nazis, although their initial focus was within Germany as they promised to bring order to a chaotic society crippled by economic chaos.

These tactics are also paired with good old-fashioned fear in which the security of the nation and its people are supposedly endangered, as the enemy is dehumanized and presented as a huge threat, even if the enemy is a small band of people or a backward nation with relatively few weapons.

Some men have an insatiable need for power and derive deep satisfaction for the expansion of their boundaries and the control over as many people as possible. Of course this demands an ever growing number of powerful weapons and these men are only too happy to produce them.

By contrast, most women don't seek power by brutal means. They know from the inner most recesses of their hearts that killing, maiming and orphaning deprives other mothers of their children or causes them immense heartache.

The next time you see any news about the Afghan War, ask yourself why it is being fought and why it is so many men, women and children are being killed. As Syria is rightfully condemned for using chemical weapons on its people, consider the U.S. using Agent Orange in devastating Vietnam and using spent uranium in bombing Iraq.

Think of all the people these chemical weapons kill immediately and the many others killed slowly over time. Think of all the severely birth defected babies being born and of all of those who will be born, their silent suffering caused by chemical weapons,

As if all this isn't bad enough, we now have a "War on Terror" which allows nations, warlords or anyone else to fight endless wars by using a phrase that is nothing but an empty abstraction.

All of this brutality for what? What does it accomplish? And when does it end? History tells us it never ends and our consciences tell us we must be peacemakers and recognize our brethren in every nationality, in every religion and in every soul.

For it is up to us to love and nurture one another and respect our differences. not to impose our will over those who disagree with us. It is certainly not to allow men to satiate their egos with a never ending demand for war and power.

Dick