Peace Between War Times
I am finishing up another book by Jeff Shaara, an under-appreciated prolific and well-researched author who depicts and chronicles the wars of the United States. Previously I have read some of his books about the Mexican-American War (1847-48), the American Civil War (1861-1865), and World War II (1941-1945). I know that he has written other tomes about the U.S. War of Independence (1775-83), World War I (1917-18), and the Korean conflict (1950-53). I am confident that I should read all of them. Maybe he will write about the Vietnam conflict or more recent U.S. wars?
Hard to say how many Americans alone have written books about our wars, other foreign wars, even fictitious wars. We make these stories into movies and we fictionalize them, lionize the characters and the events. They deserve our attention. Some of the actions and events are made spectacular, the people involved heroicized, embellished, painted tragic and poignant. Lives are dramatically and inalterably changed by wars and their consequences. Soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, doctors, nurses, contractors, transportation specialists, the leaders, families, and civilians populations left behind... Or those that come into conflict. The injured, prisoners, dead: a great mass of parts and passions woven up in attacking or defending from the enemy in places foreign and domestic.
Right now (October 2019) Turks are attacking Kurds in Syria, both Americans and Russians figuring out where to move in between. Chaotic times, in a chaotic country that has millions of displaced people. Many victims, many others have fled to near and far parts of the world.
War is not raging in too many other places in our globe. Yemen has a constant conflict, which perhaps now is less deadly than in other months or years of the complicated power struggle there. Ethnic populaces and ideologically driven groups striving to take power from another, in a country without much natural resource wealth, like some of its Arab neighbors.
Somalia always has issues, and mini-wars pop up across the African continent. Libya has a power conflict that has been going on for many years now since Khadafy's demise.
Wars, wars, wars. And much peace for most of us.
The Arabs are the foremost purveyors of war this year.
The Kurds have been caught in the cross-fire, literally as of late.
No thanks to our current commander-in-chief. He seems to be treating a large nation of stateless people like he did the upstart USFL back in the 1980s.
It's a mistake, buddy. We all make mistakes. Hopefully they do not cost a bunch of people their lives for no reason.
Peace is a tricky conundrum.
Be we so lucky and blessed to have it and wage it, as the pin in the 1980s would say.
"Wage peace, not war."
Those in power must do what they can to work for peace and stave off the unnecessary wars.
That implies that there are wars that we cannot avoid.
We need to increase the peace quotient, which takes time and money.
Sort of like the war on global warming.
The Arabs are the foremost purveyors of war this year.
The Kurds have been caught in the cross-fire, literally as of late.
No thanks to our current commander-in-chief. He seems to be treating a large nation of stateless people like he did the upstart USFL back in the 1980s.
It's a mistake, buddy. We all make mistakes. Hopefully they do not cost a bunch of people their lives for no reason.
Peace is a tricky conundrum.
Be we so lucky and blessed to have it and wage it, as the pin in the 1980s would say.
"Wage peace, not war."
Those in power must do what they can to work for peace and stave off the unnecessary wars.
That implies that there are wars that we cannot avoid.
We need to increase the peace quotient, which takes time and money.
Sort of like the war on global warming.
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