Discussion Board 6
Out of all the War and Peace essays the one that I felt presented the best argument was "A Few Good Kids?" on page 630. This essay presented the issue of military recruiting. For many military recruiter research had to be done before even talking to a prospects. After the 2002 and the No Child Left Behind act this became a different story. A persons information was shared with the recruiters once they become a junior. There is an opportunity for a student to opt-out of this but most schools don't provide this information to their students. Many thought this broke privacy laws but this made it easier for people to become aware of being recruited. The need to have young people informed and being recruited comes from the consistent war. This problem is something the United States always has to deal with. This means war will always separate young women and men from their families. This makes me believe that war becomes so much more than just a fight. It changes everyones life involved.

I read the story ‘When You Have to Shoot First’ by Haim Watzman on page 591 and I believe that it demonstrated the best argument. He chose what his opinion was on the topic, developed an argument with supporting reasons and stuck to his argument. He argued that it’s hard to know if you legally killed a ‘terrorist’ abiding by certain rules. He goes to explain why it’s hard because there are a chain of events that could be going on at the time which would make officers, officials, or soldiers, curious if you’re dangerous or not. It could depend on what they are wearing, how they’re acting, where they are, etc. I don’t believe that there is a “just” war because wars involve only hatred and violence. Wars are supposed to be “just”. There has to be an argument or some fighting going on between to people to start a war then all that consists of a war is fighting to the death. Usually there is such a strong hatred between the two people that no one cares about ethics or any rules. They will kill to win and because of the hate in their heart for those people. It’s hard to say if there has been a just war, I don’t believe that people will show any mercy when it comes to war, they’re too worried about winning.

I found most of the essays on War and Peace quite fascinating, and interesting. The essay that caught my attention the most and I feel presented the best argument was, “When You Have to Shoot First.” The essays focus is on men and women in the military and when they should take initiative to shoot first towards a possible enemy. This story highlights a solider killing an injured enemy man.
The question raised is did the solider do the right thing in killing the wounded man? This is a fair question, as the wounded man appeared to have his hands up showing he didn’t have a weapon. But the solider did the right thing, just because the man did not have a weapon in his hands that moment, he was shooting at the solider just minutes before he became injured. Taking a life should always be a tough call, however, in this case the enemy could have been concealing additional weapons, such as a grenade as the story suggests. Therefore the solider did the right thing.
I do believe there can be such a thing as a “Just” war. I am not saying that war should be glorified, or is the only solution to eventually bring peace. But there are times when war is justified and is the right decision.

Out of all the essays on War and Peace, I chose to write about “When you Have to Shoot First” by Haim Watzman. The essay talks about how men in the military sometimes have to make choices of whether or not they should shoot someone. In this case, the narrator’s friend chooses to shoot the enemy who was lying on the ground injured but still alive. At first, it may seem like he made the wrong choice because he killed someone who had the chance to survive. When thought about carefully, he made the right choice because the person could have been