War Cannot Be Won

New Year’s is a time for well wishes, given to friends and strangers alike. At this time of year you can’t help but realize that peace is a prized thing for everyone and the foundation for a better, happier life.

For this reason, the content of this article is addressed to every man and woman looking and aspiring for a little piece of tranquility in their world.

It also may serve as a warning sign to president Obama, who was unexpectedly declared a Nobel Prize winner.

Peace is the right of every human being and is symbolically represented by a white dove. However, at the moment, as has often happened in the past, the dove is badly injured and bears a heavy soul. It is in mourning for the craziness and senselessness caused by those who have launched an unjust war, through which they are really trying to reach an impossible dream – supreme power.

The new year has come and despite so many problems accumulating in so many different areas, some so bad that they even risk the existence of the human race, it seems that the leaders of the most powerful nations do not see the crimes against the environment and the wars against nations. This is all being funded with enormous spending of all kinds of resources, causing horrendous destruction and suffering for people all over the world. The world leaders are not solving the suffering or the problem of the rapidly deteriorating environment, but instead are making these problems irreversibly worse. The failings of the climate change summit in Copenhagen and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the expansion into Pakistan and Yemen, are a clear demonstration of the disasters taking place in the international arena.

How can we understand that Barack Obama, who promised change and was encouraged by the U.S. and the world, who expressed with euphoria and conviction his motto of “yes, we can,” unfortunately seems to be moving farther away and quickly distancing himself from the ethics with which he launched himself into the White House.

How can Barack Obama, an informed and intelligent man of character, follow the military strategy of George W. Bush, a paranoid and brutal man, like a lost sheep? How can we understand that, in spite of the position of the international community, which is against the illegal embargo on Cuba? How can he dare, with inexcusable ignorance, to include Cuba on the list of terrorist countries?

How can we not be shocked that his speeches about war sound the same as the arguments of Bush and Cheney, or that his secretary of defense is the same person that Bush appointed at the end of his presidency to continue the war he started.

In these years of ruthless wars, of real threats from others, of attacks against many countries, all that has been achieved up to now is a mountain of defeat and pain. The aggressors feel none of the impact and those attacked are hugely affected.

Nothing good has happened since these international wars were ordered. The graves of those that have fallen from both sides and the suffering of their families and communities are the most powerful sign of all the evil that has happened in this sad time in human history.

In 2010, it seems as if the prospect of world peace and the development of the current wars are continuing down the same bad path; it looks to be continually getting worse.

However, in spite of all the predictions, the world clings on to the hope that one day salvation will prevail and triumph.

Those who act in contradiction to their prestige, promises and prospects, like what Barack Obama is doing today, should know and remember that there is nothing good about war except for the end of it.

The end of war is the true victory, said Colonel Freeleigh, in the novel “Summer Wine” by the North American writer Ray Bradbury.

Obama should forget about Bush and his macabre messianic aspirations of never ending wars. He should remember Martin Luther King, Jr., who defended the impossible dream and fought, even giving his life, for civil rights. He made possible the recognition of equality between blacks and whites, which some years after his assassination allowed Obama to reach the White House in a nation supposedly founded on democracy and freedom.

In conclusion, it might be useful for Obama and the other people waging these wars to know that wars can never be won; there is only irreparable loss. He so far has resisted recognizing this and has acted in the imperialist style of the cowboy George W. Bush.

At the same time, one must recognize that perhaps Obama’s new-found power is causing him to act in unexpected ways. Maybe he should just give up on these unjust wars. The horses of Texas, in spite of their strenuous stampede and desire to run, don’t seem to trot or gallop well in land that is occupied by Arabs. By continuing, they run the risk of injuring the rider, too.