The news of the United States potentially bombing Syria, in hopes of saving the Syrian people from another chemical attack, is just another war-laced chapter in the world that I am living in today. As far as I can remember, while living on this earth, the United States has been at war. My parents remember being in a state a war and still are. My grandparents were in the war. Their parents were in a state of war. Everyone, including you, has lived in a perpetual state of war. No wonder we find peace such an alien idea.
I get why war is so appealing. You conquer your enemy. You help those in need. You take what is yours. All the while, gun and war machine manufacturers are raking in the cash which helps our economy thrive, moving money around the world. This sounds all well and good, but people forget what the state of war costs in the end. Resources are diminished, people are misplaced from their homes, towns are destroyed, soldiers are sacrificed, and civilians are killed, all in the name of glory, honor and the all mighty dollar. In addition to tangible items and individuals being destroyed, the earth literally suffers from the State of Perpetual War. Miners clear miles of land, digging for resources to help in the fight, while massive amounts of electricity and oil are used to power the machines used in battle, adding to the already rising temperatures of our earth. We have lived through centuries of Perpetual war, without any signs of it ever stopping. We might have tricked ourselves into thinking that there is no other way to exist on this planet. But we are wrong and we know it.
Instead of bowing down to the war machine that has kept us all so afraid, we should all try to imagine a world without war and destruction and become what we believe is our destiny on this earth. To love thy neighbor as thyself. To realize that we are the keepers of our fellow-man and that when we hurt another human being, we are actually hurting ourselves in the eyes of our maker. I understand that some individuals will never place another human over their own self interests, so that is why I have to say that money can be made off of peace. Think about the amount of money that can be made if every nation in the world opened its doors to one another for trade, business and communication. The standard of living would rise for all, helping to overcome world hunger, and creating millions of jobs around the globe. We have the capacity to do so, but in order to save the world from perpetual war, what will we have to sacrifice?
With one side fighting for peace and the other fighting to fight, those who are on the side of peace will always and forever sacrifice more than those who want to continue the perpetual state of war. We will sacrifice our names, our faces, our dignity, and sometimes our lives, against those who use military force to win honor and glory. They will cut down anyone in their path on the road to a constant state of war but how do we, as peacemakers, fight the perpetual war machine? We stand in their way, offer a warm, loving hand and tell them there is a better than constantly living in a state of perpetual war. The only way peace can conquer hate, is with more peace.
“The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.” ~Omar Bradley
“Image courtesy of bplanet / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.
