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World War I was deemed the "War to End All Wars." Certainly the ferocity of the fighting, the horror of the weaponry...which included chemical warfare...and the enormous number of casualties suggested that it was time for humanity to disarm. Yet, after the failure of the League of Nations to even begin this process, World War II emerged with even greater barbarity and cruelty, even more horrifying weapons...the atomic bomb was created...and used...and with even more human casualties. Surely, THAT was enough to send the message to all mankind that it was time?
Wrong again.
The next round of insanity was the so-called "Cold War"...somewhat of a misnomer since many VERY hot wars were fought in its name...introduced the concept of "MAD"...Mutually Assured Destruction...which supposedly resulted in a standoff in which neither side could dare attack the other. Accompanied by a truly breathtaking increase in weapons of mass destruction...the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had tens of thousands of these devices mounted on intercontinental missiles pointed at one another, gigantic stockpiles of chemical and biological weaponry as well as a number of very close calls, when fingers were poised above the buttons to start the "final" conflagration that would destroy all life on earth...when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the two major superpowers began to disarm, people all over the world breathed a sigh of relief. At last! Surely THIS is enough!
BUZZ! Sorry, that is NOT the correct answer.
Instead, Pakistan, India and Israel have all developed and deployed such weapons while the main players, the U.S., Russia, France, England, China merely pointed most of theirs at new...and more diverse...targets. The stockpiles have shrunk somewhat, but the decommissioned bombs could be revitalized in an historical eye-blink, since the fissile materials have not been "surrendered." Like the title character in the movie "What About Bob?" these weapons simply refuse to go away! Furthermore, there is no evidence that stockpiles of OTHER horrible weapons, chemical, biological or simply bigger versions of "conventional" weapons that explode, kill and maim have been reduced at all. The world continues to plant, like poisonous weeds, acres and acres of land mines, devices that kill and maim long after the war for which they were produced and deployed has been forgotten. Despite overwhelming evidence that warfare no longer produces win-win situations (like WW II and its aftermath for "losers" Germany and Japan) or win-lose situations (like the many territorial-expansion wars carried out over the ages) but rather seems to result universally in lose-lose situations today (like Viet Nam, most recently). It is a skilled spin doctor indeed who can find the pony among the horse shit of modern warfare. Has Afghanistan improved with the demise of the Taliban? George Bush et al surely think so. Afghanis do not seem to be as certain. Ditto for Kosovo. Billy Clinton and his minions may have celebrated its "liberation," but the former Yugoslavia seems no closer to peace than before. All sides are arming and preparing for the "next round."
Yet we...all of us...continue the arms race as though nothing has changed. Smaller countries, like Iraq, North Korea and Iran feel that they too must obtain terror weapons able to kill many tens of thousands at a time, for no other reason than their enemies have them. They feel, quite reasonably given the context, that if MAD can work for the Big Boys, why not for them? How else can they even begin to hold back the world's policemen and their super weapons from dictating how they must live?
No, we need new heroes. Not men and women who will "patriotically" stand tall against the threats from abroad. Who will sacrifice themselves and other people's children in the name of "national defense." No, we need men and women who will stand up and proclaim that the emperor has no clothes. That nothing can be gained by maintaining an armed forces whose only goal in life is killing and destroying. For, if history teaches us anything it is that peace is NEVER obtained by war. Like cocaine leads only to a desire to use more cocaine, warfare leads only to the desire to wage more and better wars.
If our leaders can't even consider divesting ourselves of thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles tipped with "city buster" thermonuclear devices, how are we going to get rid of land mines? It is too easy for American and Russian leaders...for example...to use the possession of these weapons by "the other side" as justification. So what if they can kill all of us if we can kill all of them too?
We suspect that ordinary people understand most of this. We KNOW that the current strategy of "maintaining peace" is insane. Yet we can not yet bring ourselves to the point of just saying...as Nancy Reagan understood and articulated about mind altering drugs..."NO!" We can not yet bring our collective will to bear on the people who lead us.
So it's going to have to be a national leader. Today, Saddam Hussein stands on this historical cusp. Tomorrow it may be Kim Jong-Il of North Korea. Or Mohammed Khatami of Iran. It COULD even be the leader of one of the major powers who takes the first step of declaring, "We quit." In our estimation, the Emperor of Japan, when he surrendered Japan unconditionally at the end of WW II...risking EVERYTHING for peace...was the first of the new heroes. Anwar Saddat, the president of Egypt who backed away from endless conflict with Israel was another.
Who will be next?
Talk to you later...
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