April 30, 2004
why I am a pacifist
For me, the current events in Iraq bring it all back again.
Back in 1993, I decided not to join the german army for the (back then) 13 months of mandatory service - a basic right every German is entitled to. Instead, I decided to work in a day care center for children with behavioural difficulties and hyperactivity. Working in such an environment taught me more about life and human beings than any army in the world could have.
I am not trying to fight the case for those soldiers who tortured and killed enemy fighters in such a despicable way. However this alarms me because I think there still is a thinking amongst the coalition forces that conflicts such as this are controllable. Of course, there are the Geneva Conventions to obey to - but to me, there is far more to it.
In a war, human beings are pushed far beyond they physical and phsychological limits - we can not expect them to act in a "whiter than white" way if we send them into a region where life threatening attacks are happening on a daily basis. The fact that some of these coalition soldiers were poorly trained and educated makes matters only worse. There certainly shouldn't have been a conflict in the first place, but it's too late to argue this case.
To me, the most important thing is that the coalition faces the facts, stops the rhetorics and prepares to hand over rule over the region as soon as possible.