When Will We Get Tired Of War?

Humanity is seemingly locked in an endless struggle between opposing forces - light and dark, hot and cold, good and bad, right and wrong and war and peace. The synthesis of this struggle is peaceful co-existence.

The antithesis of this struggle is violence and destruction. When this antithesis happens, evil emerges victorious over good and war triumphs over peace. Our inability to overcome our 3 great nemeses, fear (ignorance and uncertainty), failure to communicate and failure to cooperate has lead to more wars than I care to count.

War is violence and destruction on a monumental scale. War is a savage beast that people unleash upon themselves and it devours everything and everyone in its path. Many of us labor under the illusion that war comes after years of peace, when in actuality peace comes after years of war. Unlike conflicts which can go indefinitely, the furious energy a war requires burns out quickly. The side that is losing, grows weary of the fighting, destroying and dying and sues for peace. For years this has brought an end to war as we understand it.

However, in the last 100 years, something fundamental has changed. It seems government leaders and their supporters are not tiring of the destructive reality of war, but are eagerly anticipating and looking forward to it. It has been said, "War is the sport and right of sovereigns." In our modern times, sovereigns are no longer kings and their small armies, but entire nations of millions of people.

You would think in this modern era with so much at stake and so much to lose, the last thing a nation would want to do is declare war on another. Unfortunately this has not been the case. War has been and still is a common denominator through out history.

Even in the 20Th and 21st centuries of high technology, years of peace and tranquility are rare. In this modern era of mutually assured destruction, governments have not tired of war. Examine the record for yourself.

1900-1910: 19 wars.
1910-1920: 21 wars (Not counting WWI - the war to end all wars).
1920-1930: 22 wars.
1930-1940: 13 wars (Not counting WWII)
1940-1950: 20 wars (21 including WWII)
1950-1960: 27 wars (Including Korea)
1960-1970: 30 wars (Including Vietnam)
1970-1980: 40 wars
1980-1990: 44 wars
1990-2000: 51 wars (Including the first gulf war)
2000-2007: 10 wars (That I know of and the decade is not over)

Thanks to the Nobel Organization for the info - http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/peace/conflictmap/conflictmap.html)