“There was never a good war, or a bad peace.”

Ben had it right. Anyone who disagrees should read a real history of this country by Howard Zinn, "The People's History of the U.S." Wars are fought for greed through the use of propaganda and the means of people's ignorance. Read also the quotation of Hermann Goering about the use of patriotism to bamboozle the people.

I've read some of "The People's History of the United States" in my history class; it's an interesting and eye-opening perspective you usually don't learn in school.

And "War is a Racket" By Major General Smedley Butler

We haven't had peace in a century.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1) Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, till on the haunting flares we turned our backs and towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; but someone still was yelling out and stumbling, and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. . . Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in, and watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; if you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. Wilfred Owen, 8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Peace is merely that time between wars. History has shown that humans are incapable of living in peace. We haven't "evolved" quite as far as our egghead professors would like us to believe. We are an equal opportunity society when it comes to war, hell, even our own country tried its best to destroy itself in the War Between the States. All races, creeds, and religions are welcome. No one is left behind.

GunnyCee is right, man is incapable of peace. The only real way to acheive peace is to surrender to whatever enemy arises, give in to whatever demands are made. I'd rather fight than abandon my rights and ignore my principles. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. War is hell, but sometimes there are no alternatives.

In _The Screwtape Letters_, C.S. Lewis observed that the devil runs amok at least as pervasively during peacetime as during wartime.___Although America has been 'at war' (abroad) for many decades, *at home*, we have, like the Romans, enjoyed prolonged peace, a bloated standard of living, excessive materialism, and gangrenous complacency.___We have not used our leisure productively. The ability of ANY people, nay, of any INDIVIDUAL, to use their time wisely is small compared to the destructive path of convenience.

@al in DC, many thanks for bringing up "War is a Racket" By Major General Smedley Butler.__Genuine popular grievances are too often seized upon by Narcissists with ulterior motives of power and greed who twist war to their own ends.__It would be nice if power-mad Narcissists would realize their insatiable drive for world domination springs from something as "simple" as their own personal insecurities.