Is War The Only Answer?

our college have this public speaking program of which they will pick 3 random students weekly to present a brief talk on any topics in front of the whole college... and how convenient that i was 1 of them. tsk.. anyways, my turn was just a couple of days ago... and fortunately, it went quite well without boring my audience. so yeah... i'd like to share with guys what i talked about that day. here's a copy of my speech. oh by the way, the title is "Is War The Only Answer?"  enjoy X)

"Ladies and gentlemen, exactly what is meant by war? Most people would perceive it as an armed conflict between two rivalries to obtain something that is highly desirable. But sometimes, a war turns out to be a meaningless battle driven by hatred and irrational thoughts, instead of a goal.

 

Let’s refresh our memories on wars that are currently happening. There’s a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq, the battle to gain independence of the Palestinians against the Israelis, then there’re numerous civil wars going on in Africa, as well as fights for independence in Kashmir and Southern Thailand and of course the famous war between Iraq and the United States of America.

 

Most of the time, we just read about these on going wars and be oblivious to them because we take comfort in the fact that our country, Malaysia is as peaceful as a country can get. We fail to understand their pain, their sufferings and their misery. Imagine you being in their shoes for one moment. Imagine yourself shivering in cold, starved half to death, seeing your family being shot at while running for your life from being chased after by ruthless soldiers. How sad and poignant is that?

 

Undeniably, war is brutal. War is full of waste. War is full of cruelty. Inevitably, children and civilians are harmed. But it is not the worst thing. Sometimes wars have to be fought to protect people, and to protect the world. Not protecting the world, that's the worst thing.

 

Without war, Hitler would be President. Do you think the Nazis would have listened to peace?

Without war, we would not celebrate August 31st. Do you think the Japanese would have listened to peace?

Without war, African-American would still be slaves. Do you think the South of America would have listened to peace?

Do you celebrate our independence day? Do you celebrate your freedom, as every man and woman does?

Without war, you would not have it. Peace is an act that has to be felt from the inside based on caring for other people. How do you talk to a terrorist about caring for other people when they don't even value their own life? This is an act of justice. If it's an act of revenge, then we owe Timothy McVeigh an apology.

As a man of peace, I believe we should make room for love, not hate."   

Drop your comments please! appreciate it. X)
 

Comments

[Ching the Sung]

love, love always wins. :)

[Edgar]

you know what? i think you can run for parliament with that speech. nice one!

and finally you've updated your blog. i haven't updated mine as lately too.

yerp, love always win ^^

[Zatyness]

so, are you suggesting that we should "make love not war"?

hehehe ;)

but your speech was pretty darn good if i do say so myself.

how'd it end up? =D

[Jay Sean 杰胜]

it ended up well. everyone was like... "dude, he rocks." haha.