Contrast

I'm going to take the lazy blogger approach today and not link to the stories that got me thinking about this topic.  I'm doing that because the stories don't matter that much in my thought process. 

Over the last couple of weeks I've seen several news blurbs about this person or that person going to some third world crap hole to fight for this cause or that.  One story was about some black kid going back to Africa and getting killed.  Another was about going to the middle east and fighting for terrorism.  Sometimes the stories are about immigrants that have done this and are returning to fight in their homeland.  Sometimes its a religious thing, sometimes not.  Some of these kids live in America, but I've noticed that some of the stories concern people that have immigrated to England or Norway or wherever.

The political slant of the person writing the story will tell you how they feel about this sort of thing.  Some writers will call returning to fight "treason" or "un-American".  Others are morally neutral reporting the event.  Which is why I found it interesting when I saw a story about an American kid who joined the IDF and got himself killed in Gaza.  The reporting on that varied from the "objective" morally neutral perspective to the positively glowing.

On one hand I agree it is "un-American" to go fight in a war in which America has no national interest.  But if we use that as a test for sending young men to war, then the United States Government has been involved in "un-American" wars for about 150 years.  Even if going off to fight in someone else's war isn't kosher (except in the case of the boy getting killed in the IDF) that doesn't mean people shouldn't be allowed to do it.

It's a great idea for people to take sides and go fight for what they believe in.  I'd like to see more of it.  Consider what would be the out come if every person in the US who thought he had a dog in someone else's fight, simply went and fought.  I didn't say, agitate till we as a country sent our boys to fight.  If you believe someone's war is a good war, pick your side, get your own gun and ammo and go fight it.

As long as people leave this country and go fight in another country its all good.  Let every Muslim go back to the middle east and do what they think best.  Same with the blacks, go shoot each other in Africa over whatever it is you shoot each other over.  Same with the Jews.  Same with the fair-haired white folks in a snit over the Ukraine.  There is a war somewhere, go pick a side and fight it.

As long as you leave the rest of us out of it, and don't bring the problem here, I think its a fine idea for you to go fight for "your side".