Peace Department

'Tis but a small thing, a pesky little pastime that never really ends. We usually call it War. Sometimes we call it Police Action, Stabilization, or Peacekeeping. Now, we even give it a name that makes for marketable television, like "Shock and Awe," or "The Terror in Afghanistan." We name it as if it were a TV series which, of course, it is.

It maims. It kills. It makes a lot of people filthy rich. We get sentimental over the last one and all stirred up and patriotic over the next one. And there is always a current one. It's economic, don't you know. We must keep the gears of industry grinding and the citizens united by a common enemy.

Now, let me make one thing clear: I believe every country or locality has the right to defend itself if attacked. The trouble is, someone always seems to be attacking someone. The reasons for making the first move usually have something to do with a preemptive strike and the need to destroy someone else's weapons of mass destruction in order to protect ourselves, so no one is ever really at fault. Unfortunately, if no one is responsible, then everyone is in a constant defensive, and therefore, "justifiable" state. Decades ago, we even renamed the old War Department. We now call it the Department of Defense. Sure it is.

I have no answers, except that someday we must wake up to the quaint idea of a brotherhood of human beings. We all live on one itty-bitty rock in an infinite universe (or two). With today's technological advances, we should be able to share it and its resources without feeling the need to annihilate each other.

Perhaps we need to create a "Peace Department."