Why We Fight Response

Wow. Wow, wow, WOW. This documentary might have been one of the most interesting and simultaneously upsetting that I’ve ever seen. Normally, I pride myself on the way in which I’m pretty definitive about what I believe. This includes the war(s) that we’ve seen in the past seven years. I’ve always known where I stand and, despite objections by the media and those around me, I’ve always firmly stood my ground. Until now.

Now, I’ve grown up in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve lived here my entire life, with the exception of my three years so far at Clemson. Charleston is about as “southern belle” of a culture as it can possibly get. Sadly, I’m really no exception to this. So, obviously, part of being a southern belle (in my little city anyway) is supporting America at all costs. I’ve always held firm to this. I’ve always been very proud to be an American and have seen all of our past wars (perhaps with the exception of Vietnam) as a step toward the greater good and as an absolutely necessary measure to keep our country on top. When I heard about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in high school, I immediately turned on my defensive side. When people would protest or utter their annoyances with the wars I would go into my whole “we have to protect our country; what would you do if you were President Bush; we can’t let the terrorists beat us can we?” bit that reflected my feelings on the subject. To this day, I will stand firmly on the fact that I believe Afghanistan was the right decision. However, after watching this documentary I’m not so sure about Iraq.

I’ve always loved history and kept myself busy with learning all of the facts about our great country’s past and I’ve always loved learning about wars. World War II in particular is one of the most fascinating history lessons one can sit through. However, after watching this documentary I feel differently about both World War II and Iraq. There’s so much to say about this so I’ll try to condense as much as possible.

First, the atomic bomb. I knew that this was a senseless act but no one really put it into perspective for me until this documentary. The quote in the movie that claims Truman just wanted to “show off for the communists” and objected to Japan’s surrender utterly shocked me. Basically, we killed many innocent civilians and damaged two areas for a lifetime just to establish that “Hey, my guns are bigger.” It really disgusted me. I know that Pearl Harbor was also for nothing-no argument here. But that was basically an area full of military. The atomic bombs were filled with innocent civilians.

On to Iraq. As I said before (and in class discussion last week) I fully supported Afghanistan and believe that it was necessary to go. We were living in fear and terrorists are truly the most vile and repulsive creatures on the planet. However, after watching this, I’m not so sure that I can fully support our decision in Iraq any longer. I’m a firm George Bush supporter and always will be (my dad actually shook his hand once- lol). But I was never quite aware of the history that both President Bush and the United States government has with preemptive strikes. Now, obviously there are arguments to both sides. There are both good and bad justifications that can be made. However, the fact that we struck them with no real agenda (according to the documentary) is a little unsettling. It almost seems as though it was another case of Japan. Since Hussein was a powerful man who detested America, we wanted to show him who the true world power was. It really puts all of it into perspective. I can’t exactly express my feelings with words. However, after the constant spattering of different reasons why we’re in Iraq in the documentary, I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in our government and their bullying ways.

There is so much more that I can say. I just don’t want to bore anyone with my babbling and “revelations” coming from Why We Fight. However, I can say that I’m a lot less firm on my ground since watching it. But I think that’s a good thing. It’s good that I’m now questioning why I have believed in this war for so long instead of going on being absolute with no real reason. I will always support our country and our troops (I have three friends currently stationed in Iraq). But it’s nice to get a new point of view on both this and past wars that our nation has fought. I really found the final quote interesting- we fight because “too many people aren’t standing up saying I’m not doing this anymore.” Sad.