Lvl 3: The Interesting Case of Preventive War

     In my opinion, starting a war is never ever justified. In war, the common man has nothing to benefit yet everything to lose. We have seen history prove to us time over time that innocent civilians are the biggest victims in war over useless politics. However, after taking a class in international relations, an interesting case was brought to my attention: preventive war. Preventive war is waged when one country wants to keep another under the boot, to make sure they never become strong enough to be a threat to them. Sound tyrannical right? Surely only a ruthless, evil dictator would ever do something like that. But one instance in history might change your mind about it.

Nazi Propaganda during 1933, it says "give me four years".

     1933, Germany. Hitler rose to power, and started WWII. We all know how catastrophic that was. Maybe that all could have been prevented if the Allies stepped in when Hitler regrouped the military, when Hitler took Czechoslovakia… If the Allies had waged preventive war against Germany, many lives would have been saved, the holocaust would have never happened, and the color pink would still be considered a “manly” color. However, some historians have argued that while the events of WWII were horrific, our society did make great advances due to the war. We wouldn’t have the internet, or air conditioning, the US would still be in the middle of the Great Depression, women in the US wouldn’t have the 19th amendment, etc.

     For those who don't know what Adventure Time is, it's a kids show that airs on Cartoon Network, about the adventures of a human boy and a dog. They live on the Planet Ooo, that has been through nuclear war, causing the planet to be different that the world we (the audience) live in. It is usually very happy and simple, but sometimes the show actually has deeper themes. In Episodes “Finn the Human” and “Jake the Dog”, the show treats the nuclear war in the show as a neutral event, almost positive. It simulates that if the nuclear war didn’t happen, Finn would have gone crazy...

     Jake would’ve become evil...

     The nuclear war would eventually still happen...

     Everything would be in shambles. While in comparison life on Ooo is relatively happy, with Finn and Jake still together.

     What does this all mean? Is preventive war justified or not? I suppose the answer to this question is relative. Personally I still don’t think it is justified. Surely in today’s society we have other ways to intervene with situations that would warrant preventive war. But one thing we know for sure, is that it is important to look for positive things even in terrible events. There is no point in regretting over something you could have stopped but didn’t, since we would have no way to know if that was the morally right thing to do. It is important to make the best out of situations, and doing your best in the current moment, so in the future when we look back in the past we wouldn’t feel guilty, but instead think “I did the best that I could and that’s good enough.”

References & Citations

https://www.quora.com/How-would-the-world-look-today-if-WWII-never-happened

http://schools.nycenet.edu/Region5/ms210/www_two/ww2effects.

http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Finn_the_Human_(episode)

http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Jake_the_Dog_(episode)