Debating the Pros and Cons of War: Considering Beliefs and Unifying Factors

Do you see war as positive or negative? Think about it. Do you see war as a way for people to fight for what they believe in? Do you see war to unify people and give them hope? Or do you see war as unnecessary and irrelevant? Do you see war as a waste of time and resources for so much pain and suffering? Just a few years ago, I asked my grandfather the exact same question I am asking you today, 'Grandpa, is war good or bad?' He replied with an awe-inspiring story.

He said, 'when I was a young boy, I was in the midst of gunfire and explosions. A terrorist attack. I remember the masked men mercilessly shooting many innocent children multiple times even after they were dead. I managed to escape but to this day I wish I had done something, done something to make a change, to guarantee you would never see the same things I had but I didn't.

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' Thank you all for coming today, my name is Sparsh Goyal. War on us is so unmistakingly pro-war and ferocious that the destruction of our planet is only a few wars away (Thesis). Sure, some people say that war unifies people and gives them hope but clearly that is wrong. What is the point of unifying people and giving them hope so that they can be violently slaughtered with napalm or die painfully being gassed? We must view war as a negative thing and always support peace.

How has war been good to us if it has caused so much destruction, fuelled the evil intentions of many corrupt leaders and wrecked our eco-system?

Advancements in war have created a gateway for even more destruction than ever before. The recent breakthroughs in war has created even more fear in us. Consider the atom bomb. The atom bomb was a new development discovered by the US during the second world war. On 1945, the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima instantly wiping out 90% of the population and injuring most of the remaining citizens (Thetaoofd). Buildings had been turned to rubble and radiation stood tall slowly eating away much of the remaining city. War development also included the breakthrough of chemical warfare. This mainly consisted of poisoning and gassing the enemy. It had attributed to 90,000 malicious deaths and millions of serious injuries until most of the world's leading powers signed a contract banning their use in combat. Finally, drones. Drones took out targets without risk to personnel and heavily increased the amount of civilian deaths in opposing countries. The earth has not evolved to the bloodshed humans have grown into. War strategies were influenced heavily by war leaders and usually 'worse the leader, worse the strategy.'

War has directly and indirectly induced the motives of many cruel leaders. During WW1, Germany was evidently nationally shamed, as of a result of their defeat during the war. Adolf Hitler was eye-witness to that. He said that it was his destiny to save Germany from ruins and his leadership over Germany lead to the slaughter of millions of Jewish deaths but even millions are microscopic towards the total death toll of 50-70 million during this war. Another example is Pol Pot. After Pol found that Cambodia was revolting against France, he plotted a revolution. He joined a communist party and after given complete control, brutally murdered millions of innocents peacefully living in Cambodia. H.G. Wells, a famous writer, quoted 'if we don't end war, war will end us.' War will may not end us through bombs and bullets, but it definitely will end us through the destruction of our eco-system.

Our eco-system has already bled from war. The production of artillery, tank forces, air forces etc. has damaged our environment through pollution. During the Vietnam war, 20 million gallons of napalm was released across the countryside. To this day no tree nor no life has flourished there. In 2008, studies show that the U.S. military used the equivalent of 1.2 million cars worth of oil in that year alone. Let me repeat that, that is 1.2 million cars worth of pollution and natural resources the U.S military used in one year. Moving onto my next point, the worst oil spill ever was because of the Gulf war. Andrew Stuhl, who has a Ph.D. in this field, said that over 1.1 billion litres of crude oil was released into the ocean. It manifested in a loss of biodiversity and uninhabitable coastlines. Do you really believe that earth can keep up at a rate like this? War on us will destroy earth.

Conclusion

War on us brings deaths and destruction, war on us means that we can make change in our world, war on us means that we can stop war together. All the destruction, all the upbringings of gruesome leaders and all the undeniable harm to our eco-system, it is just not worth it. Benjamin Franklin quoted, 'There was never a good war, or a bad peace' and Thomas Mann quoted, 'War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.' We don't always have to sort out problems with gore and violence. You and I are humans, the superior specie and we have the power to make change. Thank you for listening.