Huxley and Barak on War Term Paper

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He deplores the hiding of true violence. That hornet reference really came down to this, Huxley says; "in other words, to go and throw thermite, high explosives and vesicants [i.e. chemical weapons...] upon the inhabitants of neighboring countries before they have time to come and do the same to us."

Another pet peeve of Aldous Huxley is the use of abstract entities like "man power" and "fire power"; and he dislikes the abstraction used often, "force." "You cannot have international justice...unless you are prepared to impose it by force," he hears the political leaders say. Democratic countries must be protected, the politicians say, by "use of force." After all, the author continues, "force" - when used in reference to human relations - has no "single, definite meaning." After all parents use "force" they insist that their children act in a certain way, but it does not imply that they are beating up on the children. They "force" their daughter to go to church with them, for example. There is of course the "police force" and there are the police who need to use "force" when they are trying to control a crowd.

In war, "force connotes violence" and yet it is such a benign word, he explains. All of these things that Huxley brings up can be made modern when the present day war conducted by the U.S. In Iraq is examined. The killing of Americans and the killing of combatants in Iraq, whoever they happen to be, is all just part of the "war on terrorism.
" Because the United States was hit with a major act of terrorism in 2001 (September 11), the military actions now taken in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere is attributed to the "war on terrorism" and it justifies the spending of billions of dollars and the loss of 4,000 lives (in Iraq) by the Americans.

Another euphemism used by the United States in the context of terror is to call the prisoners at Guantanamo (in Cuba) "enemy combatants." They must be called that because if the U.S. called them what they are, "prisoners of war," they would then by international law have to be treated fairly and humanely. The Geneva Convention dictates to all war leaders that certain humane ways of handling prisoners of war must be carried out. But if you call them "enemy combatants," you can do whatever you like to them, including torture them.

In conclusion, Barak Kushner, author of the Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda writes in his book that comedians sent by Japan to entertain the troops were known as "comfort brigades." Of course it is well-known that the Korean female prisoners of war were known as "comfort women" because they were forcibly raped and kept in housing for the "comfort" of Japanese soldiers. In other words, Japanese soldiers could have sex whenever they wanted to at the expense of female prisoners who were turned into unwilling prostitutes.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. (1960). "Words and Behavior" from Collected Essays. New York: Bantam.

Kushner, Barak. (2006). The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda.….....

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