Wrong Reason for War

Topic: Blog on Mailer

As I read Mailer’s essay, there were many interesting topics of discussion that he wrote about. One topic was his reasons for why we are at war, or rather why we should not be at war. I agree with him because we are at war for the wrong reasons now.

Mailer wrote that fighting terrorism is not a good reason for this war. He pointed out that in America, most people are against terrorism. Terrorism has no substance in war. He asks if we, as Americans, really will know what we are fighting for. He also stated that Americans are violating their religious beliefs just as the Muslims are violating their Islamic beliefs. War goes against religious beliefs because the ideals are for peace, not violence.

Terrorism does not give us something worth fighting a war for. Terrorism is a concept that is too vague. Are we not terrorists by causing fear among the Iraqi people? When we first started this war, many of the Iraqi people loved us, but now they hate us even more. I even agreed with the war at first, but I was young and naïve; I did not have a good understanding of terrorism, as I do now. I think they hate us because we have overstayed our welcome. We are also asking many people to live with daily house search and seizures; this is cruel in itself, especially when most of them live in everyday fear already. Many are so afraid of being harmed by the increase in violence that they are being forced to leave their homes; they now have to find refuge elsewhere that is unknown to them. It is wrong to cause so much fear among these people.

When I look at the reasons behind this war, it is hard to see the truth. We are supposed to be fighting terrorism but this fight will be a never ending battle. Our government needs to remember what psychopaths do when they are caught after killing innocent people; they laugh in the face of the loved ones who become infuriated with the psychopaths. These actions reflect directly to the events that occurred shortly after September 11th. We gave into the terrorists, rather the psychopaths, when we retaliated against them for the murder of our loved ones and friends. When dealing with psychopaths, we should keep calm and find an alternative way to punish them. In the case of 9/11 though, we could not do any harm to those who actually committed the crime because they died too. We chose those people who were indirectly responsible to strike at. We went to war for the wrong reason because the terrorists are laughing in our faces still today.

Do we know what we are really fighting for today? We are not fighting for our religious beliefs because everything we are doing over in Iraq goes against it. We should not be in this war at all. The main ideal that we are fighting for is our way of life, but no war should ever be waged for this reason. The Muslims are fighting for the same thing though. We have no right to dictate to them that their way of life is wrong. We should be helping them, not making them fearful of us because fear does not win a war.