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[LETTERS to the editor]No more war

Alarming thoughts continue to penetrate my mind about the excruciating impact of war on all people, including those on the front lines and common Joes saddled with the financial and moral burden of an unrelenting mission. What prompted me to ponder the horrors of war was not the steady stream of news coverage nor a personal encounter with a victim of the war in Iraq, but a South Korean movie, “Taegukgi,” which brought to light the misery and dread that follows a declaration of war.
Taegukgi’s cinematic brilliance and wrenching poignancy struck me with an epiphany. Are advocates of war truly insane or do they honestly believe that sending idealistic youths on a campaign of violence and brutality will bring about a more peaceful world?
For reasons popularly cited ― to eliminate dictators, curtail nuclear proliferation, restore a semblance of human rights ― war, in my view, has no place in a 21st century of idealism, righteousness and optimism.
To paraphrase U.S. President Ronald Reagan, two lives are lost with any death, especially at a young age: the one that an individual was living and the one he would have lived. Thousands of American soldiers’ lives ― and what might have been their future lives ― have now been lost in the swirling deserts of Iraq. How many more need to die?
Not only must the war in Iraq end, but war in general must unequivocally be excoriated as an antiquated means of achieving an end.
Dennis Yang, an English teacher at Gimhae Foreign Language High School