Assignment 9 - Daniel Brewer

Is there a time for war?  While I would like to believe that most any disagreement or conflict can be resolved with discussion, compromise, or any means other than war, the one time that I think war is necessary is when it is a response to an act of terrorism.  The one example that comes to mind, of course, is 9/11 here in the United States.  In this example of terrorism, innocent people were going to work, going to school, flying across the country for business and for pleasure, and they were killed because a radical religious group hates everything about the United States.  Simply because they were Americans going about their everyday lives, they were killed by terrorists.  The terrorists took responsibility for the attacks and claimed that they did it in the name of Allah.  What is the appropriate response to these terrible acts? I think the response had to be war. America has to defend itself, because innocent people were killed.

In this case, when a radical religious group believes that they are doing the will of their leader or god, how do you protect the people of America without war?  I think America had a responsibility to go to war to protect the citizens of the United States.  If America had done nothing, would there have been more terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11/01?  I believe that there would have been many more attacks if America hadn't declared war on terrorism.  

Also, when a terrorist group is fighting for something that they believe in, I'm not sure how  compromise would work in that situation.  I'm not sure that that our government could convince the terrorists not to attack if they really believed that their god was telling them to attack and kill the people in the west.  

The world would definitely be a better place if there were no wars or fighting between people and cultures.  But throughout history, there have always been wars over slavery and freedom and oil and religion and land.  And there will continue to be wars over these resources for a long time, until world peace is achieved.