What Hawkish Governments Can Learn From Pro Wrestlingby
Bill Barnwell
Recently I was reading about a young soldier who was killed on the battlefield in Iraq. This young man, just 19 years old, had his life tragically ended before he could ever experience most of his hopes and dreams. In remembering his death, one person was quoted as saying that "he gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country." That is true, but it’s worth asking why it’s always common young folks like this kid who have to give the "ultimate sacrifice" and not the people who actually lead their countries into war. The ordinary people who do not want or desire war are the ones who are tossed out in harm’s way. The political people who caused the battle in the first place sit in their comfortable offices and rarely ever see any personal consequences for their actions (except for the occasional war crimes trials). With most wars, literally millions of people are affected because of the arguments, decisions, and mistakes of their quarreling governments. Most are affected indirectly in some way. Thousands are directly affected, however, by sacrificing their lives, losing a loved one, having their house blown up by a bomb, etc. It’s worth noting also that the people shooting at each other usually have no good reason to hate each other. The only reasons they hate each other is because their governments told them that they should hate "the enemy." Americans didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that they hated Iraqi soldiers and wanted to kill them. They hated them because the soldiers represented Saddam Hussein; a man the U.S said was evil (and he is evil, no doubt). Hence, by extension all Iraqi soldiers were evil, since they were fighting for Hussein’s government. The same goes for the Iraqi’s who hated Americans. Iraq said the American government was evil. Therefore anyone who fights for America’s government is also evil in their minds. So basically, wars are started by the decisions of a relative elite few. The elite few tell the rest of us that if we love our countries then we will support them at all costs and hate the enemy. The elites then send young and healthy (but usually poor) men and women to die while they sit around with other central planners and set up time tables for the next deployment. While more and more kids die the elite central planners lecture about "staying the course" and criticize those who do not support their glorious policy of war by calling them traitors or wimps. In the end millions of people wind up hating each other because Leviathan A didn’t like Leviathan B. To many people, this is unfair and uneven. The good old days of politicians settling their scores through dueling were a more just route. If two people want to act like barbarians and kill each other, then don’t bring the rest of us into it. It would be great if the common folks rose up and shouted to their respective governments, "Hey, guys! Take your problems out on each other and leave the rest of us out of it. Stop destroying our lives, economies, civilizations, and ways of life because of your quarrels. Also, stop making us foot the bill to fund these disruptions in our lives. Thank you, have a nice day." Then I remembered a favorite pastime from my childhood years. I was a big fan of professional wrestling and the WWF (now WWE). I haven’t watched wrestling in years, but there are some valuable principles warmongering governments could learn from the art of pro wrestling. I remember as a kid when two wrestlers would have a major beef with each other that they would settle the score…inside a steel cage! How about instead of having millions of kids die in wars we just put our leaders inside a steel cage and let them slug it out?! It will never happen, but wouldn’t it be great to see Saddam Hussein and George Bush go at it inside the steel cage? I can just hear the announcer now, "Coming down the isle, accompanied by his manager Karl Rove, weighing in at 180 pounds. He’s lean, he’s mean, he’s a Texas killing machine, George W. Bush! And his opponent, hailing from the thugged-out streets of Baghdad, the proud and valiant Mesopotamian Madman himself, Saddam Hussein!" One could easily argue that the America-Iraq dispute was more than just a dispute between Hussein and Bush. They are right. This was a quarrel between two governments. Well, the WWF had a resolution for that. It was called the "Royal Rumble." In this type of fight, 30 people would be in the ring slugging it out. All you had to do was toss someone over the ring to win. It was every man for himself. This would be perfect for the world’s power-hungry politicians who are ultimately more concerned about themselves and their own power and influence than the people they represent. Think of how exciting it could have been. We could have watched Paul Wolfowitz, Chemical Ali, Dick Cheny and Tariq Aziz do battle inside the squared ring. Heck, why not throw Richard Perle, Ann Coulter and the entire staffs of the Weekly Standard and Al-Jazeera in as well? Just picture the action: Wolfowitz giving a pile-driver to Aziz. Cheney jumping off the top rope and slamming Ali. Coulter just flipping out on everyone. It would have been great! Man, what a blown opportunity. It would have been the biggest fight of the year. The fight could have taken place at the UN headquarters. Maybe even at one of Saddam’s old palaces. It could have been broadcasted on pay-per-view and brought in a good chunk of change for each nation’s economy. And who wouldn’t want a Colin Powell or Dick Cheney wrestling doll? While all this is very humorous, the real issue is not funny at all. Governments all around the world use their people as pawns in their numerous power grabs and attempts to settle their own disputes. People who never had a reason to hate or kill each other are dropping bombs and blowing each other up, and for what? More often than not, it’s simply to do the bidding of each of their respective power-hungry governments. Each time some crazed Islamic radical blows himself up in Iraq, he’s not dying for Allah or even for his people, he’s dying for the political disputes started by government elites. What a worthless cause to die for. The young man I referenced in the opening of this essay was probably a good and brave kid. His death and the many others like his is a tragedy. He did indeed "give the ultimate sacrifice." In a perfect world, however, young people would not be cut down in the prime of their lives to fight and die for the quarrels of politicians and various competing governments.
July 16, 2004 Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor in Swartz Creek, Michigan, and a Master’s of ministry student at Bethel College. Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com |
We
certainly don’t live in a perfect world though. Every day, all around
the world, people continue to give the "ultimate sacrifice"
for their governments. What we need is a nation that rises up and
tells its ruling elite that if they want war then they can sacrifice
their own lives and give up their own freedoms instead of sending
young poor kids to do their bidding and handle their dirty laundry.
Throw them inside the steel cage and leave the rest of us out of
it.