TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Most of you know that I am a proud pacifist. As an original Baby Boomer, born in 1946, I have been curious about history for most of my life. The most important facts I learned involved the history of wars: their origin, the loss of life, and what was accomplished. I will not bore you with all of what I learned over decades, but I can summarize the facts in a concise manner. WHY MEN RESORT TO WARS Any man or woman with average intelligence is aware that any military conflict between nations must be the last resort, or a defensive measure after one of the nations wages a military assault on the other. Early in recorded history, the three reasons for declaring war were based on acquisition of land, disputes involving personal relationships, religious beliefs, and the male ego. THE VERY EXISTENCE OF THE UNITED STATES BEGAN WITH A WAR [Settlements in the New World began with the Spanish in 1492/1493, followed by the English, who established Jamestown in 1607. ] Most...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart First and foremost, the people of any country involved in a military conflict never “win a war.” Only military leaders and politicians discuss winning wars, and they, and only they profit from the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. What has never been discussed since WWII is the fact that America’s government nor its military leaders have “won” a single war. Our military left in disgrace from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and eventually, Afghanistan. However, the people living in those countries, and of their adversary, the United States of America, lost brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, husbands, and wives. People who can never be replaced. Being an original “baby boomer,” I often think of the tens of thousands of lives taken by the decision of one man in August of 1945. On August 6 and August 9, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A total of approximately 120,000 Japanese citizens were killed...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   As of today, June 24, 2023, the United States of America remains the only nation to use nuclear power to murder tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.  [Hiroshima: 70,000–126,000 civilians killed 20,000 soldiers killed 12 Allied prisoners of war Nagasaki: 60,000–80,000 killed (within 4 months) 150+ soldiers killed 8–13 Allied prisoners of war Total killed: 129,000–226,000.] Governments declare and create wars. The military executes these tragedies. Regardless of the nation or the situation, innocent civilians are always victims of their governments, offering their lives and their quality of life for those who are designated to serving our nation, while our elected officials frequently profit from the carnage. In the 1980’s our political and corrupt government created one national holiday in February and declared it “President’s Day.” This was a self-serving and terrible decision. Prior to this mistake, we, as a nation, celebrated Abra...