On the End of War
by Glen Draeger
He asked me what were the usual Causes or Motives that made one Country go to War with another. I answered they were innumerable . . . Sometimes the Ambition of Princes, who never think they have Land or People enough to govern: Sometimes the Corruption of Ministers. . . . Difference in Opinions hath cost many Millions of Lives . . . Neither are any Wars so furious and bloody, or of so long Continuance, as those occasioned by Difference in Opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
We have come to try and put an end to the hostilities, so that our children and our children's children will no longer have to experience the painful cost of war, violence, and terror.We have come to secure their lives, and to ease the sorrow and the painful memories of the past - to hope and pray for peace.
Yitzshak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel,
on September 13, 1993 at the signing of the
Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles.
War would end if the dead could return.Stanley Baldwin
Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.Ernest Hemingway
This is not an answer.It is a question---a question in search of an answer.
Let us assume that a lasting world peace is possible, that someday in the future, a near or distant one, there will be no more wars, no more holocausts, no more terrorism. It is understood that this very likely will not be the case. The truth may be, as history seems to indicate, that war will always be with us. However, if we make that assumption(and it is an assumption regardless of its perceived truth) we may not fully give ourselves to this question: How can we achieve a world without war?
The first thing to do is to admit what has not worked. The goal is a lasting world peace. A peace that will continue from a particular point in time into the future. This has never been achieved.
It is, perhaps, obvious that war itself has never been able to achieve this end. War gives birth to war. Even the noblest wars have been followed by more wars. No matter how "noble" a war may be or be perceived to be it is, at best, a necessary evil. Those who talk about the nobility of war are those who have survived it or have never participated. Victory in war is ultimately no victory. It is not a victory for the families who lost loved ones, not a victory for those who lost friends and most certainly not a victory for those who died. Our efforts, though understandable, to convince each other that those deaths were not in vain are an attempt to deal with the tragedy and ultimate absurdity of the loss of life because of war. It is important to remember that we never get to hear from those who lost their lives because of war. Never.
It is just as obvious that diplomacy has never achieved a lasting peace. President Carter's Nobel Peace Prize for his work to bring peace in the Middle East is ironic considering today's events there. Gandhi's peaceful revolution has not kept India and Pakistan from conflict. Treaties are made and just as often broken. They seem to have little meaning and no truly lasting effect. When push comes to shove most, if not all, countries are willing to break treaties in favor of self-interests ultimately resulting in war.
Neither has religion put an end to war. It is true that religion can and often does have benefits for individuals, but on a universal scale in regard to war it has failed. In many instances it has exacerbated the problem.
Nor has any political system succeeded. Democracy, communism, dictatorships, aristocracies, republics and all shades in between have patently failed. We still have wars---lots of them.
Protests by anti-war groups have not been an effective means to end war. Modern protests against war often degrade into the violence that, ironically, is to some degree what is responsible for war. The demonstrations often reveal all too well the innate human traits that left unbridled cause so many of our conflicts.
The exercise I am engaging in at this very moment has not been able to stop war. Writers, poets, playwrights, artists and film-makers have long lamented war, pointed out its evils, its absurdities and pleaded for peace. But war has continued, has, unfortunately, flourished.
I have heard it said that if you want to change things as they have always been then it is necessary to do something that you have never done. The problem is that since it has never been done it is difficult to conceive what that thing might be. There was, however, another revolution that may give us pause for hope and reason to believe that the answer may be somewhere with us.
In 1543 Copernicus revealed that the sun was the center of the solar system. There were, however, others before him who thought this. Aristarchus of Samos who lived in the third century B.C. in ancient Greece believed this at least for a time and so did Nicholas of Cusa in the 15th century A.D. The majority of scientists did not agree with them for many hundreds of years, but that fact did not make the assertions of those who believed in a heliocentric universe false. Copernicus' theory still took many years to be accepted as can be seen in the trial of Galileo, but he was right as were those who preceded him.
Maybe the answer is out there. Maybe we've heard it before, but it seems so ridiculous to us that no one believes it to be credible. Or maybe it is something that no one has considered before and we must wait, expectantly, for someone to discover it or discover it ourselves. I don't know.
I am father, a husband, a brother, a son, a nephew, an uncle and a friend. What I know is that I want war to stop. What I know is that with the types and amounts of weapons that we have produced and will be capable of producing in the future that the likelihood that war may destroy civilization as we know it is not improbable. It may be inevitable. It may happen in my lifetime or my son's lifetime. Or maybe, just maybe, it may not.
Can we achieve a world without war? If so, how can we achieve that world? I don't know, but I want to know even though, as I well realize, the end of war may not be a possible reality. But what if it is? What then? The solutions of the past have not worked. Trying them again and again is not the answer.
My fear is that war will stop one way or another, but it must stop. We must, somehow, stop it. We must . . . . . .
stop.
Copyright 2003 Glen Draeger
Also see: "On the Real End of War"
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