Dona Nobis Pacem: My Hope

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

All through history true soldiers that have seen the rage and senseless destruction of war know it is the ultimate expression of stupidity and waste which only breeds more fear and conflict. But it is an unfortunate, almost tragic, situation that many in the United States have come to associate soldiers, marines, and others who serve in the armed forces with a love of war.

These people live in some delusion world promoted by popular movies and television full of improbable action heroes with clever catchphrases and slick politicians reveling in some false and hollow glory of peace through superior firepower. The delusion being that the enemies of peace and justice can be defeated through the use of "shock and awe" tactics that will send them cowering into dark holes fearful of ever defying the crusading might of this era's current superpower.

Peace enforced at the end of a spear, sword, musket, or rifle depends on how long a soldier is willing to hold his weapon at the ready and his country is prepared to pay the bill in both blood and treasure. History is replete with dead empires who sought to spread their influence and civilization only to find that the cost of maintaining it was far too great.

Yes, there are those in the world even now who wish to conquer, dominate, and spread chaos at the expense of others, and we must stand ready to oppose those who believe the acquisition of power by any means or the killing of innocents is ever justified. But if a real peace on this planet is even remotely possible it must be realized that it will come through an understanding that every human being has an inalienable right to live their life in peace and have access to the things that make life possible.

I absolutely refuse to believe this is impossible despite the fact that most of human history is nothing but one bloody saga after another, we have not survived this long as a species only to fall victim to an ancient caveman mentality of fear and suspicion. In a way the people alive today have what can be considered both an honor or possible curse of seeing a world at peace. With seven billion people on the planet we can no longer live with by old ways that we have carried from the days when our ancestors roamed the planet in small hunter-gatherer groups living strictly off the environment.

We can either change our attitudes and ways and begin to show that we are an intelligent species by treating each other with the respect and dignity everyone deserves along with doing our best to curtail the ignorance and greed that threatens our world. The alternative of course is to continue our usual behavior with wars and destruction of the environment but that will lead only to a peace by extinction of us naked primates. Time is not on our side but in the end homo sapiens have the will and ability to survive programmed in their very DNA and while I have reasons to doubt it more times than not we are an intelligent species. Its damn time we start using the brains God or evolution gave us. I'm sure Darwin and God are looking down wondering what we will ultimately do.

(Author's note: Don't know what really got me in this mood but surf on over to Mimi's place for more of the same. Typos suck, still finding the damn things.)