Howard Zinn is someone I admire greatly because his words are truly inspirational. He has written many books such as his most recent Just War, The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency, and A Power Governments Can not Suppressed. His straightforward and candid discussion, analysis, and insights into history inspires further thought and contemplation on events we think we are experts in.
In this day and age, all we hear about is war and destruction all over the world. Everyday we are bombarded with the media ‘s stories on war and conflict. We have become to a certain degree become so familiar with violence that we almost expect to see something bad all the time in the news. Maybe that is the problem: we have talked ourselves into believing and accepting that violence is normal and part of life and to get use to it. Are we becoming a society that accepts everything we see because we are too lackadaisical to want to discover the truth?
I saw a video on Youtube where Howard Zinn was asked if he thinks war can be categorized as just or unjust. I like the the response he gives. He says that any war should be seen as unjust. I agree with his statement “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.” For example, the Iraq war, we went in there to take Saddam out, but as a consequence there are millions of displaced citizens and the dead. Some of these people do not care who is right or wrong. They just want to live their life in peace.
Is it part of human nature to be agressive? Is war a natural progression of civilization?
It's about you! 
Teacher, I watched the video. The first part seemed to be poorly dubbed. It was toward the end that I hear the message, “To live now human should live.”
In our mother tongue, manoot and kon are terms use interchangeably to describe people or a human person.
A human should live a civil life in peace and harmony with each others and nature. In today’s society, we have a mixture of the good along with the bad. See the show Shocking Video lately? There are so much violence in the streets of America; caught on tapes. It is so scare. In some streets of America, we have to act tough or aggressive. It is our art of fighting without fighting. As a human being we should be aggressive or we can choose not to be. This depends on the circumstance or situation. As a country, we need and should be progressive as well as aggressive. However, justice is justice and justice shall be served. Well,you know how the old saying, “In order to bring peace, people must rose to war.
The United States declared war on terror. An eye for an eye, isn’t that our human nature? I scratch your back you scratch mine. It is justified. Then came along figures in our human history that says, that is not the way. Peace, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, care, share, they says.
War is inevitable as long as we think it is. We were taught to fear. So in fear we make our move first. It is call being aggressive. Evil will make its move to destroy peace, love, and happiness. So using our best judgment, we sometime move first. It is call defense. What are we to do as peace loving people? I am optimistic but I can’t even begin to imagine a world without war. War is an inheritance we human do not need. Sad truth is, there is not enough peace rally going on. To show our royalty to the troops that served to defend and protect freedom and democracy, we can’t have too much of those.
Human are so far distant to God but all we want to achieve is godhood or power.
Instead of all I stated above, I was really wanted to say, “It’s all about power. It is why we human are aggressive and warlike not creative and peaceful.”
Amphone, Happy Lao New Year!
Power can be a problem if we abuse our position for our own self-interest instead of the greater good. Remember the saying,”With power comes great responsibility!” There are people who are either selfish or selfless. Those who are selfish will take advantage of the weaker ones to get what they want.
War is inevitable like you said because WE have talked, argued and persuaded ourselves to believe that there are no other alternatives to to solving a conflict.
We can have a peace rally without bashing our country by focusing on the message of world peace through understanding and tolerance. The problem with peace rally today is that it sometimes end up defeating the purpose of the rally. We can’t call a demonstration a rally for peace if we offend people by being disrespectful to our president and country. Look at our military men and women, they serve our country even though they might not agree with everything that our government does.
War is wrong.
War is not justify.
War is the last resort.
But war is necessary.