The sun is lowering in the sky, tinting it a deep crimson red. The countryside of this rural area is silent for the first time in days. Yet the battle rages on. No bullets are being fired. No lives are being taken. There's lots of yelling. Angry people in suits slamming packets of papers onto desks in fits of rage. They don't know what it's like to hide behind a wall while bullets narrowly miss their faces. They do however know how to balance a national debt on a war that has no reason to be fought other than greed. They do know how to point the finger. They do know how to send men off to die.
Yes we were attacked, and thats more than enough of a reason to retaliate. But not to spend years and years over there. War is a business, nothing more. Once we spent our money on the troops and the munitions, then we decided to recover for our loss by taking land for oil. Covered it with different excuses. The suni's and the shi'ites have been at war for thousands of years. Like an intervention from a third party will end that suddenly.
We fight wars when its convenient. When theres money in the bank, or when we're attacked. Vietnam shouldn't have lasted as long as it did, or it shouldn't have happened at all. But now theres a shiny memorial to every son, brother, father, friend, lover, and man who gave his life for a war that he probably didn't even willingly go off to fight. As the people speak up a new excuse is made. Was that war to end communism? or Terrorism? I can never remember which. Last I checked communist nations still exist. Boys come back as men, they didn't choose for it to happen, but now the blood is on their hands. They didn't have a say in the matter. Those who die rarely do either.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to war. I view war as a business. There are money and resources to be gained from different lands, and sometimes a push is whats needed to gain them. War itself is a necessary evil. What i am opposed to, as the first three or so paragraphs detail, is the hypocrisy of the leaders. The men and women who send the brave and the bold off to foreign lands to fight for their sakes. Yet take all the credit. Soldiers are decorated with cheap emblems, but congressmen are granted with the memory of who voted yes in favor of the war itself.
War is a business. Nothing more, and it doesn't try to be anything else. For every life taken another is taken from the country as payback. For every dollar spent on a bullet, just as much is being spent teaching men to use those bullets. A constant goal is for the resources needed to run a country, and the funds to do so. So to sum up my ultimate feelings about war: War is a business, and freedom sure isn't free.
