Peace is not the absence of war

[SoCalDem]

Peace is about the "leaving alone" of others.

It's about accepting the fact that things not done "your way" can be perfectly fine.

It's about being ready to help another if they need it, and not because you expect payback in another manner.

It's about being happy that someone else has something and not secretly plotting ways to steal it from them.

It's about showing the way, instead of forcing people to follow you..at gunpoint.

It's about channeling the wealth into useful productive venues..not building up a huge military. (If we have it we WILL use it)

Having a friend is cheaper and healthier than having an enemy.

if peace peace broke out (hah!) think of the resources that could go to education, affordable housing, real energy planning, poverty eradication that might actually work, national health care for all, a living wage for all.

Countries always speak of "peace dividends" when a dispute is settled, and it's never long before the military types figure out a way to hold onto the money they are used to having, and as long as we have leaders who cannot tell the difference between peace and the absence of war, we will never be what we could be.

[LWolf]

1. Perhaps we can help peace "break out"

by breaking some peace out in our own lives, too. If our culture does not feed aggression, conflict, and competition, will peace thrive?

I am eager for some of those peace dividends.

[Skidmore]

2. Yup.

Yup, yup, yup.

I'll add the caveat that voices of peace are better heard if you can stop the booming of the arsenal.

[TwilightGardener]

3. What size military should we have?

[Lex]

4. Medium-sized?

:wtf:

[SoCalDem]

5. We certainly don't need one as big as the one we have now.

All those fancy schmantzy weapons are not helping us much.. a cell phone, some nails & a bunch of unemployed zealots seem to be beating us..just as a bunch of emaciated vietnamese former-farmers did, 4 decades ago.

Our military kind of reminds me of musclebound weightlifters. We have the beef and brawn, but a smaller, more lithe and crafty adversary can outsmart them

[TwilightGardener]

6. I think we can definitely make it much more cost-effective and efficient,

but I do think we need to keep a technological edge. In a few decades, there will be other superpowers and more states with nukes/other WMD, and I don't want us to lose the advantage. I do believe, DESPITE Iraq, that we are the world's best hope for maintaining peace and order--just gotta get leaders who only use force as a last resort to prove it.