陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

正义，邪恶与无意义战争
Just, Unjust, Meaningless Wars

价值一语：Words of Value:

The human race is in the best condition when it has the greatest degree of liberty. --- Dante Alighieri

人类的巅峰在于最大程度的自由。 --- Dante Alighieri

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 10/3/2011)

All my life, I had been brain-washed by the Chinese tradition and the communists to have believed that there are only two kinds of wars: Just and unjust wars. Therefore, according to the communists and the Chinese tradition, one has to choose sides when China is at war, morally.

A person is trapped in this scenario: "Us" vs. "Them" has long become the standard by which the Chinese people judge what is just or unjust, what is right or wrong. Even the Chinese language leaves a person with only two dimensional adjectives -- either commendatory or derogatory. Morality thus is confused with loyalty. Nothing is clear any more.

Then what is a just war? A just war is a war that pushes history forward toward human liberty, thus it is progressive in nature.

What is an unjust war, or evil war? An unjust, evil war is a war that pulles the history back toward darkness, slavery and human misery, thus it is regressive in nature.

Are there wars that are just meaningless? Yes, indeed. Most wars throughout human history are meaningless events of bloodshed and mayhem aimed at gaining hegemony, territory, power and dominance... They have no clear moral and historical direction. They only promote a vicious cycle of nothingness. They are nihilistic in nature. These wars happened before humans realize that there is a timeless value called human freedom and the historical compass is controlled by this moral absolute - an objective gravity.

Most wars America has fought are just wars -- WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, the Cold War, Iraq War.... Americans fight wars for that timeless value of freedom and human happiness.

Most wars China has fought are evil wars and meaningless wars -- China - Japan war in the 1800s, Chinese civil wars to gain power for one party or another, China-India war, Korean war, China-Russian border war, China-Vietnam war.... (or the impending war against the Taiwanese) Chinese only fight wars to gain dominance, hegemony, territory and power. And China indeed fights wars to pull history backwards toward darkness and human misery.

Most wars in the world have been meaningless wars to perpetuate vicious cycle of human power struggle -- religious wars of past, tribal wars in Africa and America, Iran-Iraq war, Yugoslavia civil war, etc... Some are evil wars like today's Islamic Jihad against modern world. Killing for the killing's sake, killing to drag the world backwards toward despotism and slavery are the prominent features of these wars.

If you have moral clarity, you should not follow your face, race, skin color, nationality and ethnicity... You should only follow your conscience embedded by God, to support, oppose, and stay away from wars.

So let all of us support the just wars for liberty, oppose evil wars against human freedom, stay away from meaningless wars with only bloodshed for nothingness.