What do you do to help stop wars? It seems there are few answers. This conversation started in "Roll call" and I thought it needed a home of its own.

Good point Tracey, I may have started to hijack the other thread, so I'll post again here.

I am anti-war and have been an active campaigner for a few years. I am opposed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, aswell as intervention in Libya and Kosovo. Basically I believe that western (or any for that matter) governments and ruling classes fight wars to serve their interests, not those of ordinary people. What I would call Imperialism, is not about peace, or humanitarian invention (an oxymoron in my opinion) but about money. The west doesn't worry about Somalia or piracy because it has an interest in world peace, but because it interferes with trade. A good example of this is that after the arab spring, William Hague (UK foreign minister) toured the countries that had recently overthrown their old governments, with him went 50 arms dealers seeking to make money.

However while I am opposed to Imperialist war, I am not a pacifist or against individual soldiers. Soldiers of boths sides are the poorest people, with the most to loose and the least to gain.

Personally i always thought that it was great having a wide variety of countries and ideologies. It gives balance to the world. If we didn't we would soon have a one world government and that would mean the people in power would be able to control more people. However, with the internet this idea of mine may be obsolete. I pray and help as best i can the occupy movement in hopes the people of the world will unite and take back power from the elite 1%. I did serve during vietnam but told my drill instructors in the marines i wouldn't kill anyone. they hated me for that and made my time in boot camp hell. One other guy spent his whole 4 yr enlistment in bootcamp as an example not to be like him. I did have an aviation gurantee. That allowed me to go to school and so i didn't go overseas. I trained to make the LOX the president (nixon) would breathe when flying above 20k ft. Soon as i was done school he resigned and many marines left and so did i. I then stayed silent for 25 yrs before i told people i was a veteran. Oh some people i could tell but not most. I then in 2006 did go to many antiwar ralleys in wash DC in the winter time. I collected over 8000 signatures of people asking iraq for forgiveness for what our country was doing to them. I used a 4 ft wide roll of tyvek and they signed on the white side. I still have that roll. I worked hard to get Obama elected in hopes he would stop the wars like he promised but he has been too slow.. Anyway thats my story..

First, stop funding all of these wars. It's done under false pretenses.

Second, any corporation who supports these wars in any fashion should have pickets in front of them.

Third, 90% of all the military bases should be closed. Don't need many of them anyway.

Fourth, as citizens we should stop paying taxes. Half of your dollar funds the military.

We need to protect American from terrorists.

This is an anti-war thread, as I'm sure you are aware.

Quote from: emoxon on November 12, 2011, 02:32:14 PM
This is an anti-war thread, as I'm sure you are aware.

Yeah, I started a pro war thread. Just because there needs to be an opposing view.

spoiled little rich girls gagggg

Quote from: Amazon D on November 12, 2011, 02:56:34 PM
spoiled little rich girls gagggg

Not really. I'm poor.

But I love my country and want to protect it.

Quote from: Mahsa the disco shark on November 12, 2011, 03:06:57 PM
Not really. I'm poor.

But I love my country and want to protect it.

Protect it from who ?   

Ok your poor but you have mentioned your daddy isn't..

We could discuss this here or the pro-war thread, but I'd rather get the hits here in my thread! Ever since people could pick up rocks and sticks they've been fighting one another. It's hardwired into us, and to think it will go away because we're smarter now than we were yesterday is nice, but not realistic. You can see it in the posts above this one. First someone gets called a name, then we get a "what's that supposed to mean" and before you know it there's bullets and bombs! Let's all play nice, hugs, Tracey

I take your point. But war, in the sense that it is states fighting states, is more than just petty antagonism, its about politic objectives. When a state declares war, I would hope that it is for better reasons than that it's hardwired. Behind virtually all wars there is a dubious poltical agenda, one that is very rarely shared or explained to the people fighting it.

Kia Ora,

One possible way is to remove 'greed and corruption' from the minds of the masses[start this from a very young age-re-programme the mind] and what is there left to go to war about ?

Metta Zenda

The real war is when good people get taken adantage of by evil people and then other good people try to stop the evil people. Kinda like right now as anonymous (the hacker peeps) who are trying to right the wrongs put on the poor by those who are evil

Capitalism breeds war, it has to to survive. When countries are constantly fighting economically, war is just an extension of that. As Clauswitz said 'war is an extension of poltics, by other means'. Imperialism is about the control of profit, be it sugar in the caribbean in the 18th and 19th century, or oil in Iraq. Even war's which do not directly involve your country can still be profitable by selling weapons to each side.

The only way in my opinion to end war, is to overthrow a system that rewards geedy and punishes the weak. By having a system that is truly democratic and not run by the top 1%.

Zenda, people have fought since before currency, so what does greed have to do with it. War for profit is bad, but people have fought ever since they learned a branch over the head made Grog twitch.

Quote from: Tracey on November 12, 2011, 04:17:27 PM
Zenda, people have fought since before currency, so what does greed have to do with it. War for profit is bad, but people have fought ever since they learned a branch over the head made Grog twitch.

Kia Ora,

Greed is not all about money/currency....

Metta Zenda

I refer to Capitalism because we currently live in a capitalist world. Its true that there were other motivations for war in pre capitalist society, however few if any are the result of human nature. Such an argument doesn't apply to dayly life anymore than it applies to international relations. It also lets governments and ruling classes off the hook. I don't belive that a single one of the wars in the last century came about as a result of human nature. Each time there were economic and political agendas pusing for war. No one goes to war on a whim, it starts becasue the end result is seen to be profitable.

There was a civilization that buried their swords in the sand and when the invaders came they saw how easy they could kill them so they stopped and didn't kill them all. They would have all been killed had they fought..

Emoxon, you obviously know more about the subject than I do, and I shouldn't attempt to argue with you. But let me give it a shot! The wars in the last century may have ties to capitalism, but since the Industrial revolution, virtually everything has been tied to commerce. This is but a blip on the timeline of human conflict. I believe they merely overlap, and a millenium from now when capitalism no longer exists, we'll still be bashing each others brains out.