[TCDPCO] on war

[alanmcorwin at juno.com]

War is a messy business. People get killed, lives are shattered.
It is preferable to avoid war until all other alternatives to cause belli
have been exhausted. Usually wars do not end until one side is 
defeated or the combatants negotiate in good faith when the cost 
of continuing the war is greater than what can be gained by going on.
In spite of what some idealists would like to believe, wars are not
settled by eney, meney, miney moe, by rock paper, scissors or 
by one potato, two potato. It is easier to start a war than it is to
stop one. Consider the start of Word War I.
One image of war is an event when armies go into the field, fight it
out and then retire without anyone else being harmed. If that ever
happened at all except in literature, it was the exception rather than 
the rule. History is full of examples in which armies waged total war 
on an enemy and when it was over if they won, the victor raped and 
pillaged, indiscriminately killed including women, children and the 
elderly, took slaves and sometimes razed the losers homes to the 
ground. It wasn't always that bad. Sometimes the victor merely
subjugated the defeated and exploited them for whatever they had.
Today we live in a time of total war. Not much has really changed 
except we have developed more efficient ways of waging war.
In earlier times. some wars were fought to determine who would
rule in a particular time and place. Maybe somebody new took
over, but not much changed for most of the population. If their 
side lost, life went on as before except someone new taxed them. 
Most wars are fought because someone wants what somebody 
else has and they think they can get it by military means. Wars
about national pride or religion still are fought because one side
thinks it can dominate another. Ideas or religion can be a
pretext to war really waged for other reasons.
Their are wars of aggression and defensive wars, but once they
start they are pretty much the same. Most people don't like war.
People like Patton are the exception. Basically, war is a failure
of leadership. War also can be an expression of excess by one
side which believes they are entitled. Unfortunately there are 
circumstances in which war cannot be avoided. A strong military
can be a deterrent to war, but only if leaders are held in check.
Autocrats are more likely to resort to war than democratically
chosen leaders who can be held accountable.  
We live in a time when the rules of war have changed. Wars
aren't just fought by city states or nation states. Violence can
be initiated by groups which aren't subject to the niceties of 
the Geneva Convention. New rules are needed to address new
circumstances of war. 
It's easy to say that war should be avoided so that innocent
people don't become collateral damage. That's easier said
than done because each side in a war believes their cause 
is just. Wars are rarely settled when outside forces attempt 
to impose a solution. There may be a temporary halt to the 
fighting, but if the systemic causes are not addressed, 
hostilities will be resumed soon or later. 
In a perfect world there would be no need for war. We don't live in
a perfect world. Like in the classroom, teachers or peacemakers 
must start from where their pupils or the parties to a conflict are. 
It's naive to think teachers or peacemakers can be effective by 
telling someone else what they should do or what they would do
if it was them. A teacher may know calculus, but will fail by trying
to teach algebra if the class is just beginning to learn fractions. A 
peacemaker will fail if he/she does not take into account the beliefs, 
experiences, hopes and fears of the parties to a dispute. That, my 
friends, is too often what we Americans try to do when we tell 
everybody else how they should live their lives. We wallow in the 
arrogant belief that we know best for everyone else.
End of sermon.
Signed,   Nisqually Nordmann, semi-retiring
                  community activist at large
                   alanmcorwin at juno.com 
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From: "Brian Frydenborg" <bfry1981 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: WORLD WAR II PICTURES
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