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Paul Elisha: War And Peace

There’s something strangely illusory in the approach (in less than a month) of the 69th  Anniversary of the end of WWII.  For those of us in the inexorably dwindling number of veterans in this category, there are the unsettling news stories of the “Right-Wing surge in Europe,” and the seemingly continuing inability of former allies (This nation included) to achieve peaceful resolutions to still volatile and incendiary ignitions.  These are dramatically fuelled by the wars and continuing intolerance of nations, still at odds over the seeming inequities that defy our abilities to analyze and end them.

Also bedeviling is our seeming proclivity for tolerating double-talk, quick-fixes and socio-economic inequities, as solutions to problems which demand empathic pragmatism.  Is money and/or credit and what its availability can obtain for us, the end-all answer to all the problems we now face?  This (WW-II) veteran wonders what those veterans of interim, continuing and possible future wars would answer to such questions---   since at present, it seems, that we are doomed to suffer them.

Of utmost and continuing significance appear to be the influence of tribal connections, both as instigators of alliance and divergence, since both seem to provide strong ideological underpinning for problematic provocations, beyond those they first presented and others, more attuned to present circumstance.  It would be of particular interest, to hear the views of more recent veterans on these.

It may take what all of us come to, by consensus, to end such exorbitant and excessive sacrifices as those we have all had to experience but one thing is certain:  it will take our unified understanding and resistance to achieve this.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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