Year of the Hangman - Pre Reading

Wars are fought for countries to gain rights or land. Sometimes it is fair, like if a country’s land was taken away in a previous war, or if another nation is too harsh on them. Most of the time, however, a nation will wage war so that they can gain more land to open up trade routes or to get access to resources.

The American Revolution, for example, was a war in which the objective was to gain freedom. Still, in the political sense, the British were right. They had established a colony, like other European countries did at that time. Their colony (America) wanted to be free. Since we live in the United States of America, most people tend to think the British were cruel and that we wanted to be free of heavy taxes (a fraction of what our own government taxes us today). It is often said that history is written by the victor. This means that the victor of a war will write the history of that war in their opinion.

World War Two started the same way. Some countries wanted more land. Hitler wanted to take over all of Europe and establish one “superior” race. The Americans entered the war only when they were forced to do so, fighting against their attackers, the Japanese. Other wars in history were fought for religious reasons. Still others are fought in areas of unrest, where there always seems to be a war.

Wars do serve a purpose: they warn people of the danger of wars. During the American Civil War, Robert E. Lee said, “It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we should grow too fond of it”. War can accomplish things, but it is never good. Unless a war killed no one, it can not be called good.

However, wars do serve some good purposes. They can help build an economy. Even though Roosevelt’s New Deal helped create new jobs, the need for war equipment created many more. 

War also creates technological advances. For example, in WWII, the Chance Vought F4U-1 Corsairs (American fighter planes) became the first single-propeller plane to reach over 400 mph, or 347.5905 nautical miles per hour. However, the plane still had some faults: the enormous power that the engine produced led to the plane’s tendency to roll. This, as well as the long nose, made the Corsair relatively difficult to fly. Also, it was difficult to make landing gear struts long enough that the large propeller could clear the ground. Their solution was the inverted gull wing shape, which made the Corsair difficult to land because of a tendency to bounce after carrier landings. However, in the later models (F4U-2, -3, and -4) these problems were fixed. If this plane was not made during a war, it is likely that manufacturers would have simply abandoned production of the “Bent-Winged Bird” rather than fix errors. This was because of the need for weapons. If the manufacturers had stopped production of the Corsair, the Pacific front would've looked very different: the plane was so feared it was known as “Whistling Death” by the enemy.

In conclusion, while some products of wars can be beneficial, they are bloody and result in the deaths of many people. The wars themselves should never be considered good, but, as humans are sinful, it is impossible to stop fighting.