World: Is war ever an answer?

Ever see that bumper sticker: war isn't the answer?

On Veteran's Day, last week, on KCET, the PBS station here in Los Angeles was showing Ken Burns' latest film The War which chronicles the lives and events of World War II. I caught a few of the episodes and the scale of carnage of World War II was incomprehensible.

Was war the answer?

Could Germany, Italy and Japan have been stopped without war?

The other night, I saw The Kite Runner.

Afghanistan has suffered from war as long as I have been alive. There once was a puppet communist government and an insurgency brewing. The USSR decided to invade to prop up that puppet government. The insurgency received aid from the USA in a proxy war which was part of the larger global Cold War. Eventually, the USSR pulled out and the insurgency took over which led to the Taliban. After 9/11, the USA overthrew the Taliban. Now, the Taliban launches insurgent attacks in various parts of the country.

The Kite Runner is not a political movie. It didn't dwell very long on the brutality of the Taliban nor did it hide it. As the main character rode in the car through his old childhood hometown, he saw the devestation of years of civil war and the totalitarian evil of the Taliban.

In one of the most emotionally gut kicking sequences, we watch the people enjoying a soccer game but under the watchful eyes of armed guards which was followed by "the half-time show" where a local Taliban official gives a fiery sermon about morality and has two people caught in adultery stoned to death on the playing field. Some in the soccer stands cheer the execution while others turn away in horror. We, in the audience, removed by time and distance, seethe with anger and revulsion.

Question: is war the answer against such evil?

In my opinion, yes.

I know it is easy for me as a 40-something well beyond draft age to say yes. I want to believe that if I was a 20-something, I would risk and possibly sacrifice my life to rescue people oppressed by the Taliban or other such crazed evil rulers.

What do you think?

I also want to take this moment, one week after Veterans Day, to say to anyone who clicks to this site who is a member of our armed forces: THANK YOU for your service.