Dear Paul,

You have pointed one of the tragedies of war. In order to triumph over an enemy we have to become more effective at killing than they are. War dehumanizes the victors. Some US actions should be condemned.

One of the pernicious outcomes of US victory is the adoption of the doctrine of exceptionalism in US society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism.

Sometimes a nation may benefit by defeat. Germans after the defeat in WW2 were forced to look at themselves. A minority are unregenerate Nazis, but Germany has become one of the more decent nations in the world.

Although victory has damaged the US, victory of the Nazis would have been far worse. It is better to avoid war altogether. That is why I started this string. It is to encourage the thinking of ways to avoid war.

Dear David,

All over the world, hundreds of thousands of scientists
and engineers devote their skills to planning new and
more efficient ways for humans to kill each other;
millions of workers labour to manufacture instruments
of death, and tens of millions of soldiers train for
combat - and some of them actually go to war.

From a moral and even an economic point of view, this vast
investment of human ingenuity and energy seems a tragic
waste.

For millennia people have hoped for peace in their time.

We do have two vital elements for international peace-
making in place. The first is the United Nations
which provides a forum for world opinion and a mechanism
for conflict resolution. The second is a growing body of
international law that specifies the rights and obligations
that nations have toward one another - particularly with
respect to agression.

A major difficulty with international peace-making is that
compliance with the resolutions of the UN and the rulings
of its world court are voluntary, for no country is
willing to surrender its sovereignty to an international
body. The UN is most effective when the super powers are
able to agree on a course of action and mobilize their
blocs to support it.

Even so, the organization provides an influential forum for
world opinion and while it does not always prevent war,
it does help to make it less likely.

What we as individuals can do is - let our governments
know how we feel about war. I feel that the prospects for
peace depends on the collective action of ordinary people.
If a modern society goes sto war, it is not just because
the leaders have opted for war, but because the people
have implicitly or explicitly done so - or at least
they have not opted for peace.

Our leaders need to know where we stand on the matter of
war and peace.

Hi Foxy, I'll take you up on your last point. "Our leaders need to know where we stand on the matter of war and peace."

To name the most powerful, and some of the most prominent leaders in the world today. Not a complete list by any means.

Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron, Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Bashar al-Assad, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shinzo Abe, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Boris Johnson,

Given the above leadership of the world, I must say I am somewhat pessimistic at the possibility of world peace.

Hi Paul,

Yes the world leaders don't look too encouraging.

However I was thinking of our country's leaders.
People like Scott Morrison, Marisa Payne,
Christian Porter, Dave Sharma, Ken Wyatt,
Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally,
Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese.

Dear David,

Nice thoughts, but Neville Chamberlain already tried this.
World War III is already underway.
Sadly you do not believe in God, because only God can help us now.

What a naive bunch!

The only thing that has prevented a world war is mutually assured destruction, & nothing else. As long ad bullies thrive in school playgrounds there will always be big bullies that would seek to prosper by subjugating a neighbor, region or the whole planet.

Only the likelihood of being worse off if they tried stops them. If the yanks had not stepped in & sorted Saddam Hussein we would have had many more such outbreaks. The moment the Yanks soften such takeovers will abound.

The most dangerous people on earth to the cause of peace are the pacifists.