Kamala Sarup: American Can Only Wait And See

Americans will defeat terrorism and pacify the Middle East only if they spend lots more money to do so over a long period of time. Whether or not they will be willing to make these sacrifices to achieve these objectives is undeterminable at this time. Whether Americans will prevail in the volatile Middle East and against radical muslim terrorist is a good question that has no immediate answers.

Kerry is more competent intellectually than Bush, but Bush has more empathy. On policies (war, health care, jobs, etc), the nation is about equally divided. Whether or not Bush can make progress on the issues is questionable. American can only wait and see.

There have always been wars

There have always been wars and there will always be wars because people are (1) aggressive by nature (genetics) and nurture (training), (2) acquisitive for wealth, women, and power, either in this life or in an imagined hereafter life, and (3) ignorant of the consequences of aggression. The only way to eliminate war completely is to eliminate groups, i.e., make a world community under universal laws, which is highly unlikely. All altruistic people can do is (1) protect themselves from warlike people, or (2) set up controls to reduce the number and magniturde of wars among nations.

There is much evidence that aggression is both inherited and trained. Aggression is inherited as a defense for survival. Without any training, newborn infants show aggression when their wants are not satisfied. There is also ample evidence that aggression can be induced by training. For example, in American Indians, all of the same ethnicity, some tribes were aggressive and others peaceful, the result of differences in communal training.

Most wars are fought for wealth. The periodic incursions of asian people into europe before the Middle Ages was motivated by a desire for land and booty. Wars among nations in Europe was for mostly for land. In WW II (1939-1945), Germany, Italy, and Japan sought economic resources of other nations, land, oil, minerals, etc. Religious wars around the world were and are fought for the dominance, i.e., power, of one religion over others. The wars undertaken by the U.S. in the Middle East are (1) to eliminate radical muslim terrorism in the U.S., (2) to protect U.S. oil sources, and (3) to maintain our only friendly nation there, Israel, which helps protect oil and guards against radical muslim terrorism.

People have limited knowledge of the consequences of war; otherwise, they might not wage it. If Germany, Japan and Italy had foreseen that the allies were capable of defeating them, then they surely would not have tried to conquer the world during WW II. If the U.S. leaders had realized their impotence of war against communist governments in Indo-china, they would not have wasted blood and treasure being defeated.

Because of the aggessiveness, acquisitiveness, and ignorance of people and their leaders, we can expect wars to continue indefinitely in spite of peacemaking organizations like the U.N. and other multinational organizations. All altruistic people can do is reduce the number and magnitude of wars by strengthening economic and diplomatic relations, outlawing the use of gas, land mines, etc. However, eliminating wars altogether is impossible.

( Kamala Sarup is a Co-Ordinator of The Peace Media e-magazine http://peacejournalism.com)

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