Kiona-Benton High School

Benton City, Washington

War and Peace Essay

Teacher:Dea Podhajsky

Brendan McElroy

11^th Grade

WAR AND PEACE

            Throughout the history of mankind, there has been such a short amount of time spent in peace that it is almost impossible to comprehend.  It seems to be the nature of man to find enemies, find ways to beat them, and then continue the search for more enemies, making new ones if no others exist.  We continually strive to create new things to assist us in our domination of all we see, then turn on these things if we see them becoming a threat to the way we want to live.  Because of this, man can never be at peace, even with himself.

            Ben Herbster once said, "The greatest waste in the world is the difference in what we are and what we could become."  This simple statement may be the single most true that can be said about human nature.  We waste so many resources, commit so many senseless acts of waste that it is disgusting.  It is only in the last few moments before disaster strikes that we see what we are doing, and are forced to take drastic action in order to prevent a catastrophe.  We spent our time fighting other factions in the world for our share of power, forgetting how much power we could obtain if we instead pursued knowledge.  What amazing inventions could we create if we spent our time exploring, instead of creating means of destroying things?

             Imagine what we could have accomplished had we not spent, and continue to spend, so much money on warfare.  The U.S. Military budget request for 2002 is $343 billion dollars.  If we could use those billions of dollars required to purchase or create weapons and train armies to instead research more into heart surgery, cancer, AIDS, who knows how much we could accomplish?  To top it of, we were also forced to spend more money to get rid of many of these weapons (especially nuclear warheads), money which could have been used to save and enrich the lives of many people. 

            Another quote I would like to mention was that of an unknown speaker, but showed great insight, stating, "To preserve peace, we need weapons of small and men of larger caliber." This again shows how it is the failings of man that lead to our own problems. We rely too heavily on powerful weapons to solve problems, instead of trying to get to the root of the problem; we hide behind these weapons instead of facing these problems, be they man-made or other humans.  We are afraid to confront our enemies without security through arms because we have not invested our time and resources in anything else. Mohandas Gahndi is a prime example of how much humans could accomplish if we were more peaceful in our ways.  Without a single act of violence on his part or any of his allies, he was able to liberate his county, among other things.

            We have used our superior firepower to "preserve" peace for many years, but after the bombing of the World Trade Center, we need to realize that this won't work any longer.  Our enemies know us,  and know how to use our own faults against us. They are crafty and sneaky, using our blindness to protect them from us.  They have been training for many years to be able to combat us, and are willing to give up everything to beat us. They have been taught our weaknesses, and are fighting in a way that will exploit them as much as possible.  By using stealth to fight us, they have possibly discovered the only way of fighting America. They attack us, then hide, so we have no chance to use our weapons.  By doing this, they destroyed our only defense, and also threatened the security of our country.

            If, long ago, we had decided to focus less on military power and more on diplomacy and peace to help work out differences, things would be much different than they are today.  We may not have been the most powerful or feared country, but we would undeniably be more knowledgeable to what other factions need and desire.  We would have less enemies, and this would open up even more doors for exploration into fields of study that we have never imagined.  The way the world sees us now is this; people despise those who are more powerful than them, and constantly search for ways to remove them.  If we had pursued more peaceful interests, we may not be as powerful as we are now, but we would certainly be more liked.

            One thing is for sure, however.  We must stop using our superior firepower to secure our position and scare others into obedience.  If we would be more diplomatic and start showing that we are more interested in peace than in domination, we would not have nearly as many problems.  By focusing our intelligence and resources towards other things, we could definitely make the world a better place.