Kind of like how our country is TORN about how to proceed with our armed forces.



So what is the war on tear? It is the wonderful mispronunciation of President George W. Bush. Now that we have elected a new president, Barack Obama, the relevance and humor of the Bush jokes are dying down. But there is one thing that does remain: the threat of terrorism on our homeland.

Just because George W. is out of office does not mean that the threat of terrorism has gone away. There is still a concern of our country being attacked by terrorist organizations, hailing from both here in our country and from abroad.

But let's talk about the War on Terror for a second. Instead of getting into the politics very deeply, let's examine the term itself. Isn't war itself a form of terrorism? And if that is true, then wouldn't the term War on Terror be a contradiction in terms?

Why would someone choose violence to combat violence? Self-defense is one thing, but to conduct an entire war and invade other countries out of a sense of revenge and bullying seems a bit radical.

Bear in mind though, the USA is not radical. We are a very loving nation, who wants the best for our world. So conducting a war overseas is not something we take lightly, and we are not just trying to be destructive for no good reason. In fact, we are not trying to be destructive at all. The hope is that we will use the smallest amount of violence possible in order to institute peace on earth.

That is the goal of America and our government is doing its best to put that into place: a world of peace. So must we use violence as a means to this very important end? Most would argue that a certain level of force is needed, in order to show our enemies that the flame of freedom and liberty cannot be extinguished. But perhaps it is time, again, that we examine to what degree we as a nation are willing to go in order to institute peace. There seems to be a consensus that in this past decade, things have gone a bit too far. Most Americans believe it's time to scale back and withdraw troops. It is not any easy issue, though - you have to walk the fine line between being soft and being a bully.

Terrorism is especially tough, because if you ignore terrorists, they won't usually live in peace. You can't just "let them live in peace" because oftentimes they will come attack you. Deciding when to attack and when not to is a hard issue that requires wise leaders.