Kiona-Benton High School
Benton City, Washington
War And Peace Essay
Teacher:Dea Podhajsky
Josh Corriell
11th Grade
I agree with the statement, “To preserve peace, we need weapons of smaller and men of larger caliber.” This statement made me think about what peace is really about. My whole life I thought that as long as we had big weapons to protect us then nothing could hurt us, but when I read this it made me think of what we really need. As long as we have men of larger caliber, or men that have more mental and moral excellence, then we wouldn’t need all of those big weapons because the people would be smarter and kinder and they wouldn’t always look first to violence to solve all of their problems. If everyone tried to find a way other than violence to solve problems it would be so much easier to keep peace in the world than it is now.
A good example of why to preserve peace, we need weapons of smaller and men of larger caliber, is the U. S. and Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s weapons are mostly all outdated and old and the leaders there aren’t very good people. From what I’ve seen and read lately the people in Afghanistan are governed and ruled by whoever has a gun or weapon. With frequent changes in leadership, I know it can’t be peaceful for the Afghans. The U.S. on the other hand, is a country founded on law and order. The statement, “The thing that makes life so cruel is that everyone has such good reasons,” is one of the best things I’ve ever read. When I read this it really got me to think about what it was saying. Usually when I read something it just goes in and I keep on reading but when I read this I stopped and thought about what the words were saying. This statement is trying to get people to not argue with one another as much and actually listen to what other people have to say. Humans are so stubborn that we don’t normally take the time to listen to the other side of the story when we think we’re right. Once we get our minds set on something it’s very hard to get us to listen to what other people have to say even if what they have to say is a really good point. A great example of this would be the attacks on the World Trade Towers. The attackers and the attackers accomplices probably thought what they were doing was the right thing to do, and believed that what they did was good. But I guarantee that if I were to ask just about any American if they thought what the attackers did was right they would most likely either get pretty upset or mad at me for asking such a stupid question.
A more personal example is this is when I argue with my parents or my siblings. It doesn’t matter if we’re both right in some way I will never tell them that they are even close to being right. I think that if everyone wasn’t so quick to argue with one another and if we tried to not to be so close-minded about everything and try to listen to what other people have to say the world would be a better place. As a first step into this I read the transcript on November 3, 2001 on a broadcast by the Arabic-language television network Al Jazeera. The editor says, “Osama lashed out at the United States and the United Nations” It also says, “Bin Ladin does not deny that his organization was responsible for the September 11 attacks in the United States. Instead, he says that true Muslims celebrated those attacks.” After seeing the other side of the case and looking at it from the other sides point of view I still don’t believe the attack was justified.
“Peace is rare: Less than 8% of the time since the beginning of recorded time has the world been entirely at peace. In a total of 3,530 years 286 have been warless. Eight thousand treaties have been broken in this time.” This statement should make people think about what peace really is, or if we’re even ever experienced entire peace. All of my life I’ve heard about wars and bombs and different military advancements. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone ever say that the world is at total peace and there are no wars going on anywhere. To me that seems pathetic. Humans always have to find something to fight about. There have been wars ever since man excited, since David and Goliath using a couple of rocks and a sling to bombing countries with atomic bombs.
And only 8% of all time recorded in history has the world been at total peace.