"You're mean! I'm telling my dad on you!" The preceding statement is .
quoted from Jaquiline Rose Cerda, daughter of Jack and Lorena Cerda, and, .
thankfully, my niece. Her statement, while usually seen as an adorable yet .
common, can be compared to many other statements, quoted from much more.
well-known persons. It contains an insult, which is a response to a harm or .
wrong-doing that was done to her prior to her making that statement. It also .
contains a threat, which is in retaliation to the original wrong-doing. If a child,.
completely innocent and unbiased, can make the same kinds of statements as .
political leaders (the latter having seen some of the repulsiveness of human .
interaction), then surely war is not a response to harm, but an instinct.
What is war? Must it be declared? Dictionaries mostly define it as a .
struggle between particular forces for a particular end. That being stated, war.
does not have to be declared between nations, rather, it can be any kind of .
tension or hostility between any two parties. The War On Drugs. The War.
On Terrorism. The War On Poverty. Wars Among Street Gangs. Although .
clichés, they carry as much validity as their more serious counterparts. The.
Revolutionary War. World War II. The War on Iraq.
Taking into consideration current events, the world is far from peace.
There are declared wars between many countries. World-wide, there are .
bombings, ransoms, shootings, assassinations, etc. On a smaller, but.
nevertheless serious scale, there are murders, rapes, robberies, .
burglaries, etc, occurring in frequencies as small as seconds.
What is the difference between the two scales? Society is often more .
interested in the former of the two. No one would dare say the content is any less.
wickedly destructive. Victims are victims, countries and persons alike. The norm.
among non-victims of the "smaller-scale acts of war" was to politely acknowledge.
the victims' anguish and to be thankful that it did not happen to them.