War: The Best Defense is No Defense

We, the United States, are a democracy. We believe that you simply should not “make” anyone do anything they do not want to do unlike a communist regime. However, we are setting an incredibly poor example. We are “force feeding” democracy. You simply cannot “force feed” democracy… all you can do is lead by example and we are doing a tremendously poor job.

I will analogize us to an abusive parent. We are a “Super Power” and we are the “parent” to the rest of the world. We continue to hold nuclear weapons. It is like a parent holding a gun to a child’s head telling him to behave. Do you think he will ever stop trying to get a gun to hold on you? He won’t. How would you like it if some other country had nuclear weapons and we did not and that country kept telling us we couldn't have them? We have already used them. We have been pretty irresponsible with them but yet we are telling these other countries that they are not responsible enough to have them?

We lack empathy for the other countries that do not have nuclear weapons. Why is it fair that we have nuclear weapons and they don’t? It’s not. War will continue as long as the “Super Power” that has the nuclear weapons willingly continues to hold the nuclear weapons. We are setting an incredibly poor example.

We will never and I mean never end war as long as we continue to hold steadfastly to our nuclear weapons and threatening other countries that try to obtain them. We are an abusive parent.

If you have questions or comments about this article, please share them with me at beth@empathylessons.com.

- Elizabeth Fink, September 21, 2008