In chapter one of Slaughterhouse-
Five, Harrison Star remarks: “An anti-war book? Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?” The retort
is so stinging because of its accuracy. Just like glaciers, wars have and will
always exist, and are supposedly impossible to stop.
The novel proffers the concept that war is inevitable, a
necessary evil. I don’t necessarily agree. Neither, I think, would the mother whose
son is killed in combat, the father whose daughter is killed in an air raid,
the countless children who are orphans of senseless violence. Nothing on this
earth is more valuable than human life. What then, is worth fighting for if
lives are lost in the process?
I won’t pretend to be educated enough to make an informed statement
on the current conflicts in the Middle East (though I wish the media would admit
the same), but what I can say is that it is constantly ruining lives. Maybe the
war doesn’t affect many Americans, but it affects the lives of others, while
Americans stand by in blissful ignorance of the devastation in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Iran, and other countries.
I wish things were like Kindergarten. When you have a
problem with someone, you talk it out. You aren’t allowed to swing fists and
pick fights. If you do, you get sent to timeout. If only the metaphor could be
extended to international relations. It’s just my wishful thinking, but I devoutly
hope countries seriously consider the repercussions of the action of declaring
war. I can’t say it better than Mean Girls: “I wish that I could bake a cake
made out of rainbows and smiles and we could all eat and be happy.”
If wars are impossible to stop, let’s make sure they never
get started.
