Stopping Terrorism: Hawks/Doves – Peace/War

Getting right into the heart of the battle to maintain a peaceful society is to understand the pain of war. In its totality this understanding is like reading Tolstoys’ War and Peace in five days – a difficult task yet simple if you have the tenacity to obtain the goal. Furthermore it is a task that a single person can only accomplish. Of course there are shortcuts. You can read the abridged versions. Watching the movie is another method. Both will still leave the book truly unread and the task not completed in reality, it is a half measure. At some point you will have to get down and work at it word by word. The above analogy is the very work of maintaining a peaceful society. Some will embrace it while others will loathe it. Some will fight, some will take short cuts and some will not even try. With that struggle is a multitude of emotions which people will carry concerning the task. Just as we have similar struggles to maintain peace around the world. Currently we are dealing with the many Daesh type organizations killing people around the world. Stopping them requires each and every one of us to do our part. These organizations thrive on individuals who are lost or are feeling as though they have to act violently. Such a mindset creates an internal downward spiral of hatred that will worsen if not eased. As that spiral of hatred increases so will the efforts to exact revenge, cause damage and/or seek approval from others to increase impact. Even though the above description seems to be simplistic, the solutions to terrorism rests in that simplicity. The complexity is challenging enough on the individual basis. We must also deal with the global network as well. In truth terrorism is a dual front challenge that we must take on. On the physical front we also have the sad challenge of dealing with death. The breakdown of dealing with the individual leads to the greater problem of having to physically fight. As that challenge increases the result will eventually lead to the decision to kill. We are at that point now where killing each other has become industrial. We were warned about the industrial complex after the second world war. We did not learn enough from that warning at that time. We are learning more about it now. The experience piece is being taught right now. The entire world is involved in this as is every person. How do we stop terrorism? At this very moment we are using death as a deterrent. The global effort includes the military, security and intelligence gathering efforts. In truth we know that is not the solution. It is part of the puzzle which will not work without the individual component. The true solution rests in the individual responsibility to care and protect each other. Just like reading War and Peace, you have to take it one word at a time.

Military build up in South China Sea

In past writings this topic has been the main point. In the past fifteen years the situation in the South China Sea has grown worse. In truth there is no reason why this could not be solved already. For the past twenty years in the South China Sea many confrontations have ignited over resources and territorial claims. During this time we have witnessed a few other wars that have kept the South China Sea off the major news screen, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, the Jasmine Revolution and others. However the possibility of a major war being sparked has worried some for many years. The South China Sea has many countries overlapping each others claimable territorial zones. The countries involved are Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and China. Within the sea are the Spratly Islands, Paracels Islands and the Scarborough Shoal. Each of these have a claim on territory which is debated by other countries as they battle for the riches of resources that lay beneath the ocean. During the past number of years the price of oil increased and rhetoric put a stress point on claiming territory. In response to the rhetoric being increased many countries have begun building up military capacity. China is no different as they have really put a great deal of effort into increasing their military capacity. As this area slowly boils up, it is easy to understand the China will have a greater capacity to submit force in both economics and military. When you live in a world where might makes right you can see why the smaller countries have a legitimate fear of being pushed aside if not crushed. What is the world to do? If we are to cut the head off of an impending war we must act as soon as possible. At present there have been efforts to negotiate an end yet for whatever reason no end is in sight. Looking into the future it appears that war is going to happen based upon how the situation has been going. The only reason such situations blow up is due to greed and power. There is no other point to such wars. China exerts itself because it can. To be honest, China is only doing what Russia, RUSA, and other countries have done. Even though that is a childish excuse it is the reality of the situation in many of the wars we endure.