Jul 09 2007

A Letter to My Son: Regarding the Problem of War

Published by cyrano2 at 12:24 pm under Anti-War, Peace, Moral Courage, Conscience

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By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D.

7/9/07

I want you to know how very much I love you, how much I have always loved you since the very day you were born. From that moment on I have given you my best as a father. I taught you everything I knew, everything you needed to know in order that you might one day become a man.

However, during the past few years the world has changed, and as a result I, as well, have changed. When you were but a child, I believed that a man had no choice but to love, honor, and respect his country, that one should, without question, obey the laws of his land. Since that time, however, I have come to believe that there is something of much greater value……. that of doing the will of God. Rather than meticulously carrying out the rather capricious commands of those who administer the affairs of this world, I suggest that you set for yourself a more demanding task, one of doing what you can to create a world of peace, love, and justice, that you do your best to serve a much higher calling, that of being a servant of your fellowman, one dedicated to the best interests of the human race.

During the past six years (ever since that of 9-11) our world has been transformed into a seeming “holocaust of horrors,” a world in which our president speaks of “wars without end.” For your own welfare as a human being, I ask that you take the time to listen to what I have to say, for how you respond may well determine if you become a man of honor, one controlled by the inner voice of his conscience, or that of an automaton, a mere piece of machinery, an inanimate cog, doing what it has been told to do.

The lesson of Nuremberg (a set of trials in which an International Military Tribunal convicted Nazi leaders for having committed crimes against humanity, for having essentially followed orders to wage war against their fellowman) was quite clear; human beings are sacred. We, each and every one of us, are more than mere citizens, more than the holders of a simple deed on “a petty piece of property.” We are shareholders of a much greater assemblage. We are members of the human race, each having laid claim to the one and same God. As such we must not allow ourselves to be constrained by the laws of our own land. The only law grand enough to guide the actions of man is that which serves the best interests of the human race.

One day we will each be held accountable for the degree to which we upheld the laws of peace, love, and justice. There will be no exceptions. Sooner or later (in this life or the next) there will be a “day of reckoning,” a time in which each, and everyone, of us will be held responsible for our actions. No one (not even a citizen of the United States) will be allowed to escape judgment simply because we, for whatever reason, assumed that we were supposed to have followed orders, that we had an arbitrarily-defined, patriotically-determined duty to obey the laws of our land. The Nazis learned this the hard way. The people of Germany should have known better than to have followed in the footsteps of a mad man. Surely we, as a people, have learned from the horrors of an earlier age. Consequently, we, as citizens, have, what I believe to be, an existential (no doubt a moral) imperative to tell our president that we will not follow him down the path of war, that we, as parents, will not allow him to use our sons (and daughters) as cannon-foddered-pawns in an utterly insane attempt to take over the world!

Once I was asked if I had any ideas concerning how to resolve the problem of war. I responded by saying, “Of course I do……. all war will end when young people tell their leaders that they will no longer go to war, that they will no longer continue to kill, that if war is to continue it must be fought by those who make the decisions to go to war!”

As such, it is essential that we exhibit the courage to follow the inner call of our conscience, the higher calling of God. Anything less than this will destroy the fabric of a nation, desecrate the human spirit, and lead to perdition. So, if called upon, that is, if you, as a young adult, are one day compelled to go to war for your country, ask yourself this rather simple question: “Would it be in my best interests to comply (to essentially go along) with orders to kill my fellowman, all of such, of course, in the name of a coin-engraved, cookie-cutter, American-sized God, or might it be more noble for me, as a man, to choose to become an ambassador for peace, love, and justice, an individual who has chosen to say yes to life and no to war, one who has taken a firm stance against the God-awful madness of war?

Then one day when you, as I, have reached the final days of your life, you will “be assigned” the inevitable task of trying to figure out if you in fact lived a good and decent life, if you, as an individual, had the courage to follow your conscience. And if such is found to be the case, you will spend the final days of your life basking in the glory of a man who knew how to live his life. But if, in looking back upon your life, you find a man who chose to go along with the crowd, one who did what he was told to do by others, one who no doubt sold his soul to that of the highest bidder, you will find a “man of tears,” an individual condemned to living the last of his days in a self-imposed prison of shame, an internment reserved for those who knew not how to live their lives.

As an old man then, one who was given the opportunity to be your father, my advice to you is to do the right thing; always, without exception, follow your conscience. Do that which will enable you to stand tall as a man of honor, a man of true integrity, one who will have chosen life as opposed to death, one who will have committed himself to the nobility of peace rather than the hate-filled horrors of war, one who will be proud of who he has chosen to become as a human being, an old man who will not be afraid to look at himself in the mirror and say “Yes Lord, take me, for I have lived a good and decent life, and I am not afraid to die.”

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13 Responses to “A Letter to My Son: Regarding the Problem of War”

  1. […] Read more Letter […]

  2. SJPS NJ USAon 10 Jul 2007 at 4:47 am

    Open Letter To My Teenage Son
    by Victor Lundberg

    http://www.top40db.net/Lyrics/?SongID=67008&By=Year&Match=

    Please something new, as we the ones that have been here a while and seen ‘real war’ see though you guys and dolls like white on rice.

    Iraq is downtown Detroit ’street fighting’ thats about all.

  3. AntiBorgon 10 Jul 2007 at 5:07 am

    There is no war in Iraq. First the so-called government of Iraq is our creation, puppet (or was), and our ally. Hence in Iraq the government is not our enemy officially. There are rebels in the country against this government and us. But this does not qualify as a war. The first war was a real war - against Saddam’s govt. But the normal peace that follows the fall of such governments was not allowed to take place by Bush - he maintained the state of war even when all his enemies were defeated. There came a point about May-June 2003 when there was next to no violence in Iraq. This was the point for Bush to have found elements of the old regime to sign a peace with. Even the first resistance in 2003 was not enough to consider in any way to be a war. But the US media and drone humans like you all continued to repeat the WAR mantra that the neo-cons were spouting.

    Even now there is no WAR in Iraq. It might be called a Police Action in 1965. Our troops are merely there to stir up hatreds and maintain the FICTION of war. This is so Bush could keep our troops at high levels in the area right across from Iran. Putin did this in Chechnya. He could have ended that pretense early on. But he elected to keep it going so that he could station large amounts of forces in that area - which by the way was against treaties Russia had signed with Turkey, NATO, and the USA. Thus war is a means of stationing large amounts of military forces in areas that would not be allowed IF the area was declared peaceful.

    And what is the AREA that draws all this firepower in to fake wars? It is the Caspian Sea oil - and at the moment for the USA, one of the main players for the Caspian Sea oil: Iran.
    In fact to maintain the WAR FICTION, Bush has sent US troops into missions and areas designed to create US dead and wounded. For without such dead and wounded - the fiction of a WAR could not be maintained for so many years.

    A real policy would have been to remove the troops from most of Iraq - and station them only in the small oil region. By controlling the oil and thereby all the wealth of Iraq - Bush would have had all of Iraq sitting at his own peace table, But Peace was never his goal. Creating the fiction of a continuing war was. The same way it was for Putin in Chechnya. Now that Bush’s little game is about burnt out in the mind’s of the US public, you will see either a war with Iran OR the US troops falling back into the oil region of Iraq.

  4. […] A Letter to My Son: Regarding the Problem of War By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. Jump to Comments By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. […]

  5. Jurgenon 10 Jul 2007 at 9:02 am

    Well all this is very nice, but people tend to overlook that if a soldier during the 2nd WW refused to go to war or refused orders, he simple got shot. Not jailed but executed. So please don’t blame the soldiers too much. They simply had no choice at all. Also its quite correct there is no war in Iraq at all. Its a civil war and western powers should not be involved at all, also some countries can not be run as a democracy. Its simply not possible, they do need a strong man at the top. Look at the former Yugoslavia, as long as Tito was the strong man all was ok and peaceful, people had a large amount of freedom, could leave the country and were quite prosperous. As soon as he died of course all hell broke loose and everybody tried to carve out his own small empire. The same the so called terrorists should be labeled as freedom fighters. Fighting against the occupation by a foreign terrorist country. That they fight unconventional is understood, after all they have no tanks, fighter bombers or other heavy weapons.

    The best would be the old slogan. ” If they give a war and nobody comes ”

    Regards

  6. bonanzamanon 10 Jul 2007 at 11:36 am

    There is only one answer to all of the evil on earth. Neutralize the Rothschilds and their cabal. Until then the slaughter will continue unabated like it has since 1694 when they got their charter for the Bank of England.

  7. SayNoToWaron 10 Jul 2007 at 1:31 pm

    There is no war or “civil war” in Iraq. It’s simply gang warfare: ‘You kill one of my soldiers, I’ll kill 10 of your people - any people’.

    The fiction of the suicide bomber still lingers and it’s fed to the masses. The technology to kill large numbers of people is just not available from your corner grocery store or backroom bomb maker.

    I agree with Antiborg regarding the Caspian Sea oil angle. It is kind of news to me.

    But make no mistake - “war is indeed a racket” as Gen. Smedley Butler said so long ago.

    See below:

    http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html#c1

  8. Patrioton 10 Jul 2007 at 4:20 pm

    Jason Miller is a censor. He is a gutless coward. Jews did 911 and all world wars. This word will never be seen in any of his stuff.
    He IS one of the “Chosen” eating away at the fabric of civilization.
    www.Jew-Crime.com
    Mohel wine anyone??????

  9. Rabbiton 10 Jul 2007 at 6:47 pm

    I have been thinking about just such a letter to my own son lately. Well said.

  10. Rabbiton 10 Jul 2007 at 7:06 pm

    Patriot, you are just a small minded half informed bigot. The word you are looking for, when you use JEW, is Zionist. The crimes which you object to, are Zionist crimes and while the Zionists might have hijacked Jewish identity, the facts make a different mix on the ground. Most zionists, are atheists. Jeish in name only. Many other zionists are Christian and they support and even drive the zionist cause to some degree also.\\

    On the other hand, many Jews, such as Torah True Jews are even more opposed to Israel than most of the decent people who know and face the truth about the nasty little nation wickedness and lies. Your own shallow interpretations indicate you are nobody to make such accusations at Jason..

  11. bigpicposteron 10 Jul 2007 at 10:11 pm

    I feel your pain, but I can’t help but think. I know that sometimes the emotional feelings that we have for our loved ones can, at times, override our logical thought process leading to illogical conclusions.

    The conclusion to not fight, although a noble thought does not make sense. The world will always have different tribes with very different philosophies on life. Many of these tribes choose to be aggressive due to a belief, that their beliefs are right.

    Whether it be to gain dominance over another tribe, gain the wealth of another tribe, or any amount of the other “viable” reasons, there will always be an aggressor.

    To say that no cause is worth fighting for would be the same as saying your loved ones are not worth fighting for, which leads to the ultimate paradox.

    What if the men and women who gave their lives in our great wars had decided that no war is worth fighting? Would you be typing in another language? Would you even have the right to type what you feel? This is the conundrum. The big picture that so many thinkers fail to take to account.

    Yes, I too hate war. But we who have learned to consider all the variables and come to the correct logical answers in spite of our feelings, will not stand down while the aggressors just mow all of our peaceful non-fighting loved ones down.

    So you see, when it is put to the test of correct scientific analysis, when all of the known variables are considered, and properly analyzed, the logical conclusion, the only conclusion that makes any sense, is that you, my fellow peace loving American, you….are worth fighting for.

    May God bless America

  12. Jayeon 11 Jul 2007 at 3:32 pm

    “War is a racket” from Gen. Smedley Butler. War is wrong, Period! Make love not War! The war Pigs and Profiteers will burn in hell, while our honest, beautiful, righteous departed troops walk the streets of Heaven. Shalom!

  13. Patrioton 11 Jul 2007 at 5:09 pm

    All Zionists are Jews. Jews have been THE problem since the dawn of civilization. They are the destroyers of civilization. When you refer to Torah True Jews you refer to people who also revere the Talmud, a most disgusting depraved work which is the text book for all the war and international imperialism you see today.
    But just to refer to the TORAH ONLY. Moses was the big Jew.
    If you go to Numbers Chapter 31, VS 15 on, you will see that he was an instigator of mass serial rape, murder and molestation of GOY LITTLE GIRLS.
    ANY JEW who does not take the Torah out of the synagaogue and publicly burn it in the parking lot is a fellow co-conspirator and a traitor to the United States.
    ALL Jews including those who hide behind the image of Thomas Paine are Sayanim and are potential traitors to the United States and indeed the whole of civilization.
    Jews did 911 and al world wars. They are the inventors of Communism and the owners of the Federal Reserve and you name it. The collapse of Depression II is in the wings. Who made Depression I. You guessed it, the Jews.
    Blood Libel is practiced to this very day and is responsible for a myriad of missing children.
    How about the Jew Mohel doing circumcision on screaming infants and what he does with the products. You just love it I know. Ask your rabbi for a tape so you can hear the screams.
    The next False Flag is around the corner and with it come military take over of the US and atomic war and cut off of oil and when the lights go out just remember who brought it to you>>>>>>JEWS.
    Christ called them the “generation of vipers” and the “Synagogue of Satan.”
    That was before the word Zionist was invented to sucker the Goy into not saying the word “JEW”

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