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On Thursday, 20 February 2003, I gave a presentation on the “Realities of War” to a small group in the University Center. In it I discussed War as a system, as a cycle. Thus, War cannot be understood by only looking at one part of it –such as the physical aspects (torture, ecological damage, rape, bombings, death, bloodshed, “cannon fodder,” physical affects to the people directly involved, and so on) – so it can only be understood by looking at ALL of the interconnected and interrelated realities that make up War.

For example, let’s look at the use of depleted uranium (DU)/nuclear weapons. Are the people mining the uranium and having the waste stored on their lands mostly people that are materially impoverished and/or people of color? Can that be considered to be environmental ethnocentrism/racism and just a continuation of the hundreds of years of colonialism, exploitation, and imperialism (capitalism)? Does the waste from the uranium mining enter the groundwater and does the explosion of the DU weapons send particles around the world?

War is a lose-lose situation for all of us on this planet, the only “winners” are those that profit from Wars financially and thus materially – bankers (international and national), weapons contractors, petrochemical/pharmaceutical/gas industry, the mining industry, the metals industry, politicians, and so on. So that means that we must work for peace by first finding peace within ourselves, with our families and friends, with the society we live in, with our Mother Earth, and ultimately with the Universe(s). This means that we must create a new world – Another World is Possible! (¡Un Otro Mundo Es Posible!) no longer built on profits over Life, hatred, fear, ignorance, racism/ethnocentrism, militarism, ecological destruction, and so on. But, this world should be built on Life over profits, sustainable economies and relationships, love, courage/bravery, knowledge and understanding, peace, ecological wisdom/literacy, and so on. It is up to ALL of us to make that choice and work towards a better world for all of us.

If you would like more information on War as a system, check out: https://members.tripod.com/Irucka/realitieswar.html.

Mr. Irucka Embry can be reached at iembry@utk.edu and I hope that each us of think about War as a system to see that it affects each and everyone one of us, as all wars are civil wars.

5th/6th year student studying civil and environmental engineering and Spanish