Chechnya

It would be awful to return to your home town and find all your old friends gone. victims of the war. I wouldn't know what to do! probably cry. It would feel so lonesome and quiet. So many familiar faces gone. never to be seen again. I'd ask myself "Why did this have to happen? why was there a war? did we really fight it for the right cause? did all these people die in vain?" I imagine that no one would be able to get over such a traumatic experience. Your life could never be the same again

War Child

Projects like War Child seem to help get the rest of the world more involved. Musicians have lots of power in our society today, they influence many people. I think more projects like that need to happen, to keep the world more aware and fighting for good. its a great thing when a few bands can get together, record a few songs and sell the album to make tons of money to help in humanitarian aid. It has been done a few times throughout history and seems to help everytime. I mean there isn't really a way for it to go wrong. playing music to encourage peace and help those in need out is a great way to use your talents for the good of the world.

Rwanda

its crazy that conflict in Rwanda has been going on for so long, yet no one really helps them. There may not be a lot that can be done but still, why aren't nations intervening? giving humanitarian aid to the country would be a great way to help. then you don't have to necessarily join the conflict. but you aren't sitting idly by just watching! Its really interesting/awful George Bush said he wouldn't help Rwanda, cause such a thing "isn't within our interest". I believe its in our interest just as fellow human beings! Or maybe we have all become monsters.

War and Retaliation

"the manhood that has been in war must be transferred to the cause of peace, before war can lose its charm and peace be venerable to men." I think thats a great quote. its harder to do things peacefully than to fight. war is glorified far too much, but if peace were glorified and it was desirable to be a warrior of peace, then we'd have far less wars.

I think Howard Zinn is more or less saying "who's the terrorists now?" some people hijack a plane and fly it into buildings killing tons of innocent people. so our government decided to go on bombing sprees in the middle east also killing tons of innocent people, probably more than were killed in 9/11. It was interesting how he was talking about how we never learn. with all the wars that this country has been through you think we'd learn not to keep getting into more. cause it just keeps leading from one war to the next.

Chechnya

I think the U.S. shouldn't get involved, but only from a war point of view. I certainly think we should be sending humanitarian aid to them. We should be trying to make a deal with Russia to leave them alone and help them rebuild. But we should not try and start another war with the Russians. If we went over there with troops and caused a problem, we would then be at war with Russia. That would do no one any good! The Chechens would still be attacked, thrown into the midst of the war, it would maybe even be worse than before. So we should try and resolve matters peacefully and help Chechnya in other ways.

Non-Violence

"But I believe non-violence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment." I find this to be so true! its harder to forgive someone than to get revenge. You have to try much harder to be peaceful instead of retaliating.
"In India it must be held a crime to spend money on a dinner and marriage parties... and other luxuries so long as millions of people are starving. We would not have a feast in a family if a member was about to die of starvation, if India is one family, we should have the same feeling as we would have in a private family." Its an interesting way to look at things. Gandhi makes a really good point though. How can you sit their eating your fancy dinners when there are people outside dying of starvation.
"The Afghans have a bad government but it is a self government. I envy them. And if we today had the power to drive out the English by superior brute force we would be counted their superiors"
The British didn't seem to take much heed to India, other than the fact that they controled them. Didn't try to help with the poverty. Truthfully they probably didn't really know what was going on or care much. If India had a self government, they could make decisions for themselves, decisions that would benefit the country and its people.

Peace and Disarmament

Sadly, I don't believe we will ever have world peace. the world is a big place, with lots of messed up people. Humans are too selfish and have a lust for power. Do believe it is possible to have war free zones. cause in a sense we already have some. Neutral countries, that don't fight in wars are places I would consider peace zones. I say good for those countries! I wish there were more of them. As for military disarmament...I doubt it will ever fully happen. There will always be countries unwilling to give up their weapons. Without weapons, you have no defense against invaders. And that wouldn't go over too well with the weapon manufacturers. Its too big of an industry, they would probably start wars themselves just to sell their products. However, there has been some disarmament in recent years, with the Russian and U.S. slowly decreasing their nuclear missile count. Thats a great step in the right direction, but its obvious neither country will ever completely get rid of their nuclear weapons, cause thats what gives them power. At this point we aren't certain what countries have nukes or not either. so unfortunately it would be stupid to get rid of all our nukes, cause then some loon could get power and take over by nuking everyone and we'd have no way to fight back.