fandomhigh | Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 12 (12/4/08)

"War is hell," Nathan said after everyone had gotten to their seats. "There aren't many people who find war fun. There are those who find it inevitable. As a leader one of your hardest decisions will be about when to go to war.

"Do you go to war to defend your people? What counts as defense? If you know of a threat do you strike first or do you wait until you're hit? Is it ethical to make the pain and death of your own people a touchstone? Are you serving your people well if you allow them to be hurt?

"What about others? Many would argue that genocide is wrong, but would you go to war over it? Does it matter if it's happening to an ally? An enemy? Someone who you have no relationship with at all? What about if your country is suffering a depression and doesn't have the resources to go to war? What if you think you should go to war but your people don't agree? Does it matter if their disagreement is based in a prejudice of some kind? What if it's based on the argument that resources are better spent caring for the sick and poor within your country?

"As you can see, it's a complicated topic," Nathan said. "There is no way that it could be covered in a single class. For today let's limit ourselves to a discussion of those questions. Or, boiled down to a single one: When, as a leader, do you decide to go to war?

"Let's hear your thoughts."

[ooc: OCD is up!]

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That did cause Turtle to pause for a moment.

"People can recover from poverty and recessions and hardships and tyranny and dictators, Mister Petrelli," she said. "They can't recover from being dead. It's not easy, but the easy option is very rarely the best."

Edited 2008-12-04 16:40 (UTC)

"There are those who might disagree with you," Nathan said. "Which is not to say you're wrong. Just that this is part of the difficulties leaders face when making decisions like this."

Turtle nodded. "You're never going to get full, 100% support, I know. But you have to know what you stand for, and actually stand for it, or else you don't deserve even 1% of support. If one of those people who disagree with me can make a case for their point, I'll listen, but, if that's the right way, I hope they have a really, really good case."

"This is where knowing your ultimate goals and values comes in," Nathan said. "Likewise having good advisors. There's a time to listen and a time to stand your ground. Those are the tools that help you make those judgement calls."

"People can die from poverty," Tony said, though not very loudly.

"Exactly," Nathan said. "To say nothing of the impact that impoverishing a nation can have on many things. We say poverty and think of homeless shelters, but for a country poverty can also mean lack of business growth, lack of technology, lack of advances that we take for granted because we use them every day. Is it better to risk that versus a war which, though more directly deadly, is quicker?"

"People can die from almost anything, though," Turtle added. "And people die, period. Quite personally, I'd rather not be the person behind the trigger. Oh, sure, you can say that, by letting poverty exist in other countries, you're responsible because you're not doing anything. But you cannot be responsible for the entire world."

"But if you're doing sanctions or whatever against some country, you're deliberately trying to deprive them," Tony said. "And it's not the people in charge that suffer. It's the ones they don't care about."

"And that's where peace aid tries to work itself in," Turtle offered. "You can still refuse to negotiate with a government and still provide support for its citizens. Help put up refugees, that sort of thing."

Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 12 (12/4/08)

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