Assignment 9 - Averi Ricks - War is Pretty Bad

Honestly, I REALLY hate wars. I get it, but isn't there a better way to solve problems than to just kill a bunch of people??? I don't think it's ever appropriate because wars never end well. Thousands of people die, even innocent people, and cities and towns are destroyed. Thousands of lives are ruined also, because they lost someone extremely important to them, their home was ruined, or some other awful thing happened to them. I understand that I probably sound incredibly naive right now, and that wars are inevitable, but there's never a true winner. As I'm writing this, I'm starting to think about the American Revolution. I think most people would say that was a necessary war. However, the American victory of that war didn't even make us independent. Yes, it's the main reason we were able to become independent, but technically, the Treaty of Paris is what made us independent, not the war itself. So, instead of killing each other, how about we just cut out the middleman and get straight to the treaties? As far as alternatives go, I honestly couldn't give you any. I realize that compromising is much easier said than done, but I just really think there's something else that can be done rather than killing people. It's easy to forget how horrible war can be, not just because of the death toll, but because of the effects it has, even on the soldiers, both physically and mentally. Take the Vietnam war for example; that was the first televised war, and once people realized how horrendous war actually was, they wanted it to end. If every single war was televised and you saw how terrible it was, wouldn't you want it to end too?