Friday, January 05, 2007
Many people would have criticised the Bush's adminstration on the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq because it meant the loss of many innocent lives when things go wrong. You never know who's your enemy in the modern battlefield today, it could be any innocent-looking man, woman and child out there. When armed with an AK-47, they could instantly turn on you. Tomahawk missiles have a history of hitting the wrong targets, targets like schools or medical facilities. They are not like fighter jets which are piloted by people who could stop any attack on a second notice.
Someone has to be the bad guy in the world today and say to say, America is always one of the few who "volunteers". Everyone will then turn on her and say she's misusing her might and pushing the weaker countries around. They never for once thought that if there's no big daddy around to ensure law and order, there will be chaos in certain countries with no hope of a proper government. Many of my friends think that the the US-led war in Iraq is too much and they hate Bush. Can you blame them for thinking that way? Recently, I even read on the internet that a commissioned officer from America herself refused to be deployed to Iraq because he felt that the war there was unethical. It would have been ok if he was just normal civilian but he was a regular! That piece of news totally surprised but he was probably one of the few that dared to speak out.
I'm not a war-junkie but I believe that if there's a need to go to war, we should go ahead. Lives would no doubt be lost but we've gotta make sure the war was worthwhile and the objective must be achieved. Why do we fight? We fight because we love our country and because we wanna protect our friends and family. You want the comrade fighting next to you to be out of harm's way. Taking the train to camp and to meet friends for a meal or movie can be quite boring without my mp3 player. It leaves me just looking out of the window and looking at the concrete jungle of Singapore. However, even with music being played into my ears, the scenes of the men in the train set me thinking. Many of them, the guys in business suits, studying in universities and going to work are people who had been through ns. They are people whom I know when called upon to fight will pick up that rifle. However, we are a country at peace time. My jc friends after completing their a levels were deployed to the various sectors to serve their ns. Be it the army, police or the civil defence, they all have a critical role to play. Don't look down on your friends in the police force for eg, just because they haven't been in the jungle and not bathe for several days. It's not a fair comparison.
That is why I've always respected the passengers of flight 93 aka "The Flight That Fought Back". They may be ordinary passengers who are just boarding the plane to their destination but when the situation calls for it, they rose up to the occasion. Why? Not because they want to protect the pentagon or the white house but because they just wanna be home for that simple dinner with their family. They want to be able to see the faces of their loved ones again.
The world is everchanging and dealing with the threat of terrorism all the time. I'm glad to be living in a country where the government leaves no stone unturn when it comes to stopping them.
