In studying war, I believe that it is important to have a clear idea of what exactly war is. Although everyone has a general sense of what war is, most people have a different understanding of the details of war. To me, war is a military conflict between two or more countries (or civil war) over a clear issue. Last trimester, I took Understanding September 11th, in which towards the end of the trimester, we were able to analyze in depth America's response to the September 11th attacks. We were able to then formulate our idea of war based on America's responsive actions in the Middle East. After Bush ordered the American military to invade Iraq, he coined this conflict the "
War on Terror." In order to understand this phrase, you must then identify the enemy of Bush's "War of Terror." In class, we identified the enemy, Terror, as being a group linked to an individual (not a nation) who imposes terror. Because I feel the war is between countries, not organizations, I did not classify the current situation in Iraq as a war.
Secondly, it is important to know why we stud war. Learning about battles and skirmishes in world history is completely meaningless unless you know why these wars happened and how they have shaped society today. To me, the most important reasons to study war are to learn from past mistakes and, further to learn how to "wage peace." It has been often said that history repeats itself. With that being said, if history does repeat itself, studying wars is the only way to learn how to avoid them. Not only can wars be avoided, but if we study war, we can learn how to do the direct opposite of waging war. Understanding how and why wars are started gives countries the opportunity to see what has worked and what has not, which should help create not only a war-free environment, but also a genuinely peaceful world.
Thanks for reading, and you stay classy Greenhill.
Paul Stanley
