In the wake of President Bush’s announcement that he plans to send additional troops to Iraq, opposition to the war has become even more vocal than in recent years. According to reports, Senate Democrats, aided by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, are drafting a resolution that will criticize Bush’s plans. Although many people supported the idea of the war when U.S. and allied troops were first deployed, opinion has shifted as time has gone on. Eleanor Roosevelt was familiar with this phenomenon of changing attitudes, writing:
“[N]obody knows what they may face when the world is going through a cataclysm. I could agree with you right this minute that I don’t want war, but I don’t know what you might say under different conditions six months from now.”
As the war has continued to drag on with little apparent success, it has become increasingly unpopular, as has the Bush administration. It seems as if more Americans are beginning to agree with Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote in 1935 that war was becoming obsolete:
“The easy answer to it all is that human nature is such that we cannot do away with war. That seems to me like saying that human nature is so made that we must destroy ourselves. After all, human nature has some intelligence and the world’s experience has already proved that there are ways in which disputes can be settled if people have intelligence and show good will toward one another. To do this on a national scale, as it is done in the individual, people must first be convinced that the war idea is obsolete. When people become convinced of this they will convince their governments and the governments will find the way to stop war.”
What do you think? Do you believe that war is obsolete, or do you believe that war is still necessary to achieve certain goals in foreign affairs? Is the large antiwar movement in the United States and around the world a sign that people are, as Eleanor Roosevelt suggested, trying to convince their governments to stop using war as a tactic?
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