Average people sustain peaace

Sustainable peace is best secured when the average person is involved in the process. That sentiment is the root ideology of democracy. However we have been witness to certain democratic countries acting with complete disregard of how their action lead to violent chaos. Such moments have been framed in moralistic terms as freedom fighters, securing weapons of mass destruction and ending brutal regimes. When the choice is made to act violently, the justification often is that the ends justify the means. In such reasoning the calculation of future retaliation is rarely factored in. What takes place is the blissful rhetoric of democracy. Violent wars have long term impacts that must be made aware of. The physical damage is easily repaired, such as buildings, roads and infrastructure. The wounded soldiers are rarely thought of and if they are it is an afterthought. The pain felt by those who lost will last for generations. Then there are the weapons that stay behind - unexploded bombs, mines and bullets. Rarely are the external costs of war factored into the budget of how much war costs. Far beyond the monetary expenses we neglect the spiritual, mental and generational costs. Such wounds are still be healed from wars that have been waged thousands of years ago. Religious wars are an example of such realities. More recently we have wars such as are taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, India, Columbia and elsewhere. Each place has been engaged in war and retaliation even in the face of knowing that killing will only prolong the fight. At some point there has to be the resolve to know that enough destruction has taken place and peace will only happen when the violence ends. This is a choice that needs to be made and it is a very difficult choice. Such a choice is rooted in the understanding that your children deserve to play in safety, peace, love and understanding. Places such as Syria have let go of that reality. Now the people must live with the scars of war for eternity. There will always be the memory of war and there will always be a loser and a winner in some minds. For those who know the complete impact of war understand there is no winner, just a pile of misery, loss and destruction. Peace is the most difficult path to take and yet it is all too often branded as the weakest path. The mentality of peace being the weakest path is one that needs to stop. It will only stop when the individual begins to see the benefits of peace rather than the rhetoric of war glory. Each of us has a responsibility to be peaceful. When each of us works to be peaceful then we will all understand the glory of peace instead of war. Peace is a choice and each of us has their part to make peace sustainable.

The War to End All Wars, Peace

Every year at this time there are ceremonies which focus our attention on the lives lost during war. Each year we have more names to add and more wars to mark. Even though the list of names grows we (United Nations members) are improving at the containment of violence. At times it does not seem so but that has more to do with the spread of information than actual violence. Every year we talk about the insanity of war, the chaos of battle and the hellish misery of destruction we wage against each other. Each side fights for the same reason which is rooted in ideology. That ideology is to live as we want to live. Every so often we have places like Syria come to a boiling point. Such anarchy could have been stopped if we had the courage to stop it. However we failed. We now have thousands of more names to list in memory of why war is an all cost effort. We ask why efforts for peace were so difficult that we must kill each other? The only answer is witnessed in the heart of darkness, we fail at peace because of insanity. For those that seek peaceful methods of resolve, they are faced with ridicule from those who call themselves realists. Well the reality is that every war will end with a discussion. We have the failures of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Israel, Palestine and Democratic Republic of Congo to see how killing each other has solved our problems. All too often people state that the WWII as an example of violence working. If that were true then why has Israel and Palestine continued fighting. The only thing the ended with WWII is the scale of violence, not the ideology which started it or the act of war. We can choose peace but first we must understand how to control the insanity which allows war to happen. Violence and hatred are part of us we just have to be smart and wise enough to control how we use such emotions.

Power in too few hands

Whenever there is too much power held by too few the risks become too great. The recent government shutdown in the Republic of the United States is just one example of why diversity is good. This lesson has been taught to us when dictators, kings, or equivalent people fall suddenly. The same goes for world wide systems as well. The world has a great amount of work to rework both the political and economic powers around the world. With the recent fear that shook the world concerning the shutdown of the RUSA government, each of us has been given a warning about having too much power invested in one place. The world must work to divest this power and become more equal. Equality is a pursuit that has been a goal for centuries. Now that we are aware of how much good comes from achieving equality how can we not achieve more. There is no need to have so much economic power invested in one country. Nor is there any need to have so much power invested in five members of the Security Council. We are better than this and for us not to change these systems is failing future generations of a peaceful world. Each country must begin to make trade agreements and financial agreements with other countries. Stock markets based in African countries, South American countires and elsewhere need to be built and improved upon. We can no longer be held hostage by one country. This situation will only continue to happen as long as we allow power to be placed in too few hands. Of course there will be a great amount of work to be done but peace is worth it.

Trust and peace

Each of us understands how it feels to have trust questioned. When war or violence breaks out the individual goes through a break in trust of everything and everyone. Rebuilding that trust is the most difficult part of peace. The hate and anger that is brought on by the break in peace, which the individual carries, needs to have an outlet. Each of us must find a postive outlet. However one method of dealing with broken trust for some is revenge. Recently, one of the projects I have been involved with had experienced a break in, robbery and destruction. Now we must move on with the pain of the violence fresh. The physical damage is rarely worse than the emotional and social damage. There is also the reality that everyone is going to be questioned in your mind as you try to solve the break in peace. Peacebuilding programs are built upon providing support and structure to peoples lives. The hardest cases are the ones that need the most attention. Such cases will continue to break the peace until something happens where they understand that such a tactic no longer is a good choice. How do we give people more support when they have just taken so much away? This question deals with the essence of peacebuilding. To build peace youmust have hope beyond the seeable future. You have to be able to see and live beyond the pain of today. You must be able to live and feel the future in which you are building. Furthermore you must prepare for even greater breaks in trust. The possibility of even more pain being caused is a reality that you must prepare for but work to end. Some people will take all they can and still seek to be supported. Now we have to prepare eachother to give more support. The reason is that this support will also be heard and felt by those that break the peace. Even in the face of providiing more support you must realize that you can be hurt even more. This is the point where you want to stand tall, strong and yell "Why did you create such a hell hole of anger and pain"? "WHY, why, why"?O ften the answer is "Because no one cares anyway". That is why we must always give more. Sadly we live in a world where many of the leaders believe the efforts to rebuild both society and the individual are best sought through revenge. "We must make them pay for what they did". This thought process will just spiral into what we have in Israel and Palestine. At some point we must see through the hell we create and begin to see a different method to solve breaks in the peace. Further violence has rarely worked and not nearly enough for us to continue to use it.

Credibility comes from the past

In many posts I have made note of how history gets in the way of peace. Often I use the Palestine/Israeli war as an example of how history blurrs the progress of peace. So here we are having to listen to certain leaders talking about standing up for law and citizens in Syria yet wanting to bomb the very same people. The invasion of Iraq is and was just as deplorable as using chemical weapons in Syria. Thus the credibility of those who invaded Iraq must hold themselves to the same standard as they hold Syria. In that light we must ask where is the consequences for those that invaded Iraq? Now the political option for solving Syria is ever present. What is missing is the diligent work to be done behind the cameras. A two or four hour meeting with high level representatives will not solve the Syrian war. The onbly way Syria will return to peace is a group of people that are focused on the return of peace order and good governance to Syria. At the moment it is just an adhoc group with no clear leadership or direction. The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council will always play cold war childish games. This leaves the ngo community and middle power countries to step up. The situation in Syria is of such concern that the G20 meeting was derailed because of it. We were to get some agreements on dollar valuation, global economic policy to deal with coruption and tax evasion. Very little of this was accomplished at the the recent G20. It seems as though the world is drifting aimlessly and there is no one on the horizon that seems capable of leading. All we can do is just keep working away at peace, somehow we will get there. It just seems a very long and difficult road.

Syrian Solution

The situation in Syria was allowed to happen. The illegal weaponisation of the rebels along with the poor control of the borders are issues that should have been locked down two years ago. Here we are today wasting energy on debating whether or not a military strike should be allowed. The single largest effort to resolve this issue should be the complete control of weapons going into Syria – there should be a complete halt on all weapons going into Syria immediately. Pointing fingers, blaming and seeking out who is responsible for the gas attack needs to stop. There is not one country that is blame free. This is our world and we allowed Syria to destroy itself because we did not have the courage to do what we all know had to be done. Still we are arguing over how to resolve the situation. Enough blood has been shed. Lock down the borders and take every piece of weaponry possible. Also the current government has to be supported. Even though the current government is far from perfect they are legally in charge. Due to that, any foreign troops that do enter Syria must acknowledge and support the laws and current structure of Syria. What is so frustrating is that we all know this is the way to go but it will never happen. There are too many gutless leaders calling the shots. The current set of leaders are hell bent on power grabs, cold war ideology, one up-manship and childish warmongering to make the deweaponisation plan work. Why must we always kill each other to obtain peace? That is such an oxymoron and yet it is the primary method of bring peace. Put in the extreme trade barriers of not one more weapon and lock down the borders so tight that even a mouse gets questioned. Oh wait, that solution is too expensive. We would rather spend a trillion dollars on weapons and kill people. We have wasted two years for no reason at all. With each passing day the situation grows worse and more difficult to solve. Already hundreds of thousands of children have spent the majority of their lives in refugee camps. Cultures are dying, communities are destroyed, families torn apart, history is lost and what little connection to a peaceful Syria these children had is now replaced with hate, misinformation and a destabilized understanding of the world. Why, because the leaders of the world have acted childish and irresponsible.As bad as it is these leaders still will not do what is necessary. Lock down the country and take every weapon out, only then can discussions/elections and rule of law be established. Of course it will take an enormous amount of courage and effort but no more than what it took to bring peace to Iraq or Afghanistan. Oh wait both of those were failures.

Egypt is in peril - so is the world

The situation in Egypt is one that needs to be solved quickly. The problem with that is there is very few that will do what is needed to bring an end to the chaos. From the outset the Muslim Brotherhood had built a vast amount of distrust with the public. The hope of inclusion preached prior to this round of chaos hade not materialized. Now we have the exact situation that was to be avoided. The situation is exacerbated by The Muslim Brotherhood urging supporters to go into the streets, which only fuels violence. Of course the military had made an illegal move in overthrowing an elected government. In all of this is the reality that democracy favours those with majority of population. In Egypt the majority had been the Muslim Brotherhood. The world was told one thing and then slowly a different governance model was being pushed through. This happens in every democracy that has a majority party in power of government. It is very much mob rule in basic form. This imbalance of power is the basic issue in which democratic governance models must deal. If the world is to have better systems of governance, the balance of power has to be dealt with and Egypt is a classic example of why that is. We also see the imbalance of power within the United Nations, which is to be a pillar of the world. As Egypt falls into total chaos the world can only watch due to sovereignty issues. But there is the issue of the Responsibility to Protect. As a global society we must care enough to make the tough choices. We must stop the total sale of weapons to such areas and work with the sovereign structures to enforce the rule of law. This is the reason we have United Nations forces. Unfortunately we have governments that will sell weapons to both rebels, terrorists and government forces. Just look at what is going on within Syria and Israel. Egypt has started that slide to total state collapse. Sadly we have a chance to stop that slide now but I am not confident we will take the correct steps to end the slide to destruction.