Wars we Needn't Fight; The War

War. Usually when this one syllable word is herd the average person will think of guns, wounds, bombs, politics, and other such things associated with the wars the world has fought.  Now is the time to think of some of the other wars. The wars of mind with, P.T.S, post dramatic stress, and other daily mental wars. The impact of words upon others, and the debates over the everyday actions, and then the fight of  class difference, that comes with every war and everyday life. In the movie The War, all these internal battles fought within an war stricken country, shine through.  The movie shows that while we fight great wars we also fight the small ones inside ourselves, and that sometimes not fighting will win these wars. In a touching scene within The War, when the Stephen, the father of Stu, a 12 year old boy living the south with his mom and 13 year old sister,  is told by his dad who suffering with P.T.S, the horrifying stories of the Vietnam War,  his father says with a chocked voice has he hugs Stu, "Nothing in this world is worth fighting over." At this moment Stu promises to make amends with a gang of rivalry kids he fights. It is human nature to fight, but humans do not have to fight. Every action has its consequences, so lets make actions ones of good that end the fighting, wherever it may be, for only love and understanding, will end great wars.

At the begging of The War, Stephen the father of 13 year old Lidia and 12 year old Stu, has come back from the Vietnam War and is struggling with P.T.S and the sad man he has become. The movie is written in the view of Lidia with her writing a memoir on her father. She admits that when her father first came back, her and her brother saw him as a burden. He comes back from the war and is unable to hold a job and is just not himself anymore. The children have given up on there father and choose to ignore the battle that he fights within himself, and instead they focus on their own  more obvious battles. The rivalry between the Linpnckis  a group of siblings that beat up on Stu. This ignorance of the wars begin fought in others and even of the ones in ourselves, creates the broken wars that humans fight  in all societies. Lidia and Stu fight against these other children not realizing, how because of this, they become only more blind to the truth and hurt that lies in the soul of all the children involved. By fighting, humans blind themselves to the chance to change the hurt that our battles create.

When Stephen finds out about this fighting going on between his kids and the Linpnckis, Stephen tries to sit Stu down and tell him about his blindness and that fighting against these children will only hurt all of them farther, rather then fixing their feud. Stu pretends to listen but does not take his fathers wise words to heart, instead he brushes aside  the words of a man he finds weak. As Stu walks off, Stephen says to his wife, "Boy, sometimes all it takes is a split second for you to do something you'll regret the whole rest of your life."(www.imdb.com) Stephen is referring to all the terrible things he did over seas, and all the regret that comes with those actions, and how he prays his children will not make the same mistakes. Humans do not realize how every action we complete makes a difference in someones else fate and in our own. If humans are not careful with actions, they find them selves starting a war. The regret of creating the war, of ever going through with the hated action that started it, will secretly follow the soul through the rest of its living days.  Eating away at all the hope, power, and kindness that humans have. One action, a huge reaction, and the not solving of the sideffects, leaves a human broken. Stephen is trying has hard has he can help his children to this, to see that fighting is not an answer, but a begging to a broken human, something he knows first hand.

Stew and Lidia do start to see this slowly through the eyes of the man they thought to be a pathetic excuse of a father. A man who was much wiser then he seems. He is kind, he works his hard for his family, dealing with internal battle of P.T.S  to do so, and how this  man with no hope, is bringing hope to their lives. As Stephen says "Well I don't want our kids growing up thinking there powerless because of me. Everything they do in this world has a consequence. Our children still believe in miracles. They still believe anything is possible. As long as they believe like that, they'er gonna be something. They're gonna make a difference in the world....that means I made a difference."(www.imdb.com)
Stephen did make a difference, his children began to see that fighting was not always correct. At the end of movie, after Stephen dies, Stu saves a boy who was once one of his rivals in Linpnckis and sees for the first time with clear eyes, exactly what his father had meant.  Fighting will solve nothing. Fighting for everything in is not necessary, so much can be solved if you just see the war that people fight within themselves, understand that war, and help them to clam that war. Giving to people the gift of caring and a helping hand, will do much more then punch to the nose or gun to the head. Lidia says at the end of her memoir, at the end of the movie, something that her father knew and had taught, that will stay with her always "War is like a big machine that no one really knows how to run and when gets out of control it ends up destroying things you thought you where fighting for, and a lot of other things you forgot you had." (www.imdb.com)

"Nothing is this world is worth fighting for." Empty words for Stu and Lidia that are just said by a hopeless man, changed there lives. Humans need to see this too. Though it the nature of the world to fight for things we own, humans need to realize that fighting will not solve most wars, especially those that lie much deeper under the visible layer, only love and understanding will. As Stephen said. "I think the only thing that keeps people truly safe and happy is love. I think that's where men get their courage. That's where countries get their strength. That's where God grants us miracles. And in the absence of love, Stuart, there is nothing, nothing in this world worth fighting for."