Just Finished “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

I am sure many millions before me have said it, but I will add once more, "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque is a great book. He led me through the horrors of war via a masterful piece of art. I kept saying to myself as I read each page how lucky I was that I did not have to experience it firsthand even though I was in the Air Force during the Viet Nam war. I lost friends there, but I was fortunate to come up with state side duty. I have always considered myself somewhat of a pacifist, but I have not been very vocal about my beliefs. When George Bush was taking us into the Iraq war, I kept saying "Maybe this guy knows something that we don't." In other words, in the face of my reservations I gave him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had the CIA, and I did not. As it turns out, he did not have them either. I think now after reading this work of art, I am apt to be more decisive and vocal about my views on war. I don't think I will be against all wars, but I expect to be more opinionated and active about expressing my thoughts. We need to be extremely cautious about entering into war. But when is war necessary? It needs to be the VERY last resort. We can influence leaders and peoples of other states by many other means than just military might. We have economic power that has not been fully explored. I believe we could cripple Iran to the point that they would shelve their nuclear plans in favor of economic and political survival. We would need the cooperation of other counties but we could achieve our objective there without using bombs Every bomb that drops has the risk of hitting a child, mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, grandfather, or grandmother. After reading "All Quiet", I believe we should go to much greater lengths than we have in the past to avoid the horrors of war.