22 November 2008

This is a popular thing to say - it is also true.  War is nasty, brutish and unpleasant, under any circumstances and most Western soldiers would be the first to tell you so; they have witnessed it up close and know of what they speak.

So why don't we just do away with it?  Or at least refuse to have anything to do with it?  If we refuse to engage, would it not just dry up and disappear?  This appears to be the argument put forth by those who actively oppose having anything to do with war.  So would it just dry up and disappear?

Does ignoring the sand box bully make him go away?  Would ignoring thieves make them stop doing what they do?  Did ignoring Hitler at Munich cause him to fold up his tent and go home?  Never again, was the cry after World War II ended, never again.  We surely have tried to ignore wars that have popped up all over the world.  Did it make war go away?

War is the nation state response to violence and  aggressiveness; turn the other cheek is the approved Christian response; presumably self defense is not an accepted reaction because...well, it just isn't.  It has often been said by historians of the Arab culture that the only thing Arabs understand is force, and backing away from it is taken as weakness.   What is true?   What should we do?

Alas, life - history - has shown that man is an aggressive animal that will, if allowed, seek to increase his own power over others whether it be in land, gold, water or oil.  Perhaps over time, a great deal of time, we will learn to deal with each other less aggressively, in a manner void of violence, but that time is surely far off.  The population of the world continues to grow, and will for at least another forty years, when it is alleged that it will peak; meanwhile resources appear to be more and more finite.  Those who control them intend to continue to do so; and what of those who do not?  Those in nations that control resources and therefor their own destinies and comforts tend toward resistance to dealing with  the problem of those that do not: Munich and similar - never again - war is hell; there can be no more war; it is, after all, inconvenient, and gets in the way of enjoying those comforts.  So let's ignore it and it will surely go away.

      Flower power, flower power,

      That's the thing;

      'Got flowers on my helmet and my rifle sling.

      Make love, not war; a sensible cry.

       But...what about the other guy?