No More War

Ya know something? I am sick and tired of war. It seems that for the past century or more we have had nothing but war. War on this, war on that. It's been a long, ugly, stressful and, since WWII, mostly fruitless enterprise. Oh, people say we "won" the Cold War, but I'm not convinced we actually won anything. Mostly everyone, quite sensibly, got really sick and tired of the whole damned thing.

Nobody won Korea or Vietnam. And claims that we "won" Iraq or Afghanistan - well, see above for Cold War.

Nobody won any of the other wars either. War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on Women, War on Terror, War on Christmas. Seems like every time you turn around, someone is declaring war on something - or accusing others of waging a war they themselves are denying.

War: armed conflict, battle, bloodshed, combat, conflict, contention, contest, enmity, fighting, hostilities, hostility, strife, struggle, warfare.

The minute you declare war on something or someone, you have more than an adversary. You have an enemy. You've set up a paradigm in which you can no longer talk things over (consorting with the enemy), you can't compromise (giving in to the enemy), you can't go out for drinks or dinner (providing aid and comfort to the enemy). You can't even, on weighing the evidence, decide that perhaps you made a mistake. Mistake=Loss. And anything smacking of losing is never an option.

I don't know what other bumper sticker word would work. War has such a rousing sound. It is a call to action. Grab the torches and pitchforks and let's go git 'em, boys. You don't want to hear anyone ask, get who? And do what with 'em when we git 'em?

I don't know. I just know that, anymore, when I hear someone declare war on something, even something like poverty or child abuse, I cringe a little. There must be a better way of solving the problems of humanity than once again going to war.

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