Does War bring Peace?

"During the 5,600 years of written history, 14,600 wars have been recorded."
- James Hillman, A Terrible Love of War

I think that we humans are failed to repeat the vicious cycle of our forefathers. There are many that think that the only way to spread freedom and democracy is through military force. The attack that happened to us on 9/11 have changed our conscious and will forever be imprinted on our psyche. I have an article that I want my fellow ATS members to read. Draw your own conclusions to the question that i posed.

Robert Rabbin: Political Higher Consciousness

To answer your question, I would haphazard a guess and say that it depends on a multitude of variables and circumstances.
One would have to have a proper understanding of the word 'war' and a proper understanding of the word 'peace'. Does the dictionary truly provide such complete definitions? I think not, but anyhow:
Justified or unjustified must be weighed...
Warrented or unwarrented...
Pre-emptive or not to pre-empt...
Cause versus effect...
Life versus death...
My foreign policy versus your foreign policy...
Who is 'Right' versus who is 'wrong'...
Reason versus morality and ethics...
The list goes on...

Socratic method would require that the question be asked to you and others:
Does Peace prevent War?




seekerof

[edit on 5-10-2004 by Seekerof]

Thank you for bringing this up. I've had a hard time discerning when war is the 'right thing to do'. On one hand, you cannot love someone AND kill them. On the other hand is an entirely new set of fingers...no, that's not right, let me try again. On the other hand, does that mean innocent people should become a moving targets to those who don't see it this way? I cannot change the world, nor sway it on a scale larger than myself. So for me, I choose not to kill because it is not the way of love. Thank God I live in a country that allows me to make this choice. Yes, I know, freedom wasn't/isn't free, but nevertheless I am given the choice.

I find that I get a terrible headache when I try to see politics in terms of religion, and religion in terms of politics. So, I tend to stay away from Just War Theory and peacefull coexistance theory. We'd all have a beeter understanding of how to deal with other countries if Jesus was a politician, but he wasn't.

Let me just say this: If you believe in separation of church and state, then you cannot use religious moralism as a rationale behind anti-war sentiment, it's sorta hypocitical. If you believe that religion has a place in politics, then you CAN use moralism as a rational not to go to war.

Problem is, when you believe in the first half, you rarely believe in the second half...

seekerof there are many factors. But as for your question "Does Peace prevent War? I'm not sure. If we humans are in a constant state of War then Peace is just holding War off. The United States hasn't not seen a 20 year period with out War. You know what other "great" nation had a similar record... Rome. We all know what happened to Rome. I think if we keep going at this rate we will eventually destroy ourselves are bring the world with us. But then if there weren't any wars then the earth would be overpopulated. It's almost like a necessary evil.