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Conflict is primarily driven by greed for money and for power. The opportunism of corrupt world and business leaders, as well as apathy from the international community, also help to perpetuate conflict and ensure that there will never be world peace. After all, globalisation was supposed to be our saviour, but it has not worked so far, has it?

Globalisation was supposed to unite the world. The opening up of markets was supposed to result in cooperation superseding the need for war. What an idealistic notion this was. It was genuinely believed that if all countries were dependent on world markets for trade and for their own economic growth, that there would be little incentive to start a war. How wrong our politicians and economists were.

Of course, such idealism was bound to follow World War Two, when the horrors of war were there for the whole world to see. This was not just a case of soldiers fighting in the battlefields, war was on everybody's door step, and ordinary civilians did not want to have to experience this again. Yet, even such devastation did not prevent the growing animosity between east and west as each tried to assert that their ideology was superior. As usual, innocent civilians got caught up in the political games and machinations of their leaders.

Nowadays, war seems to be conducted in faraway places, and so it easier for people in the West to simply accept that it goes on. Africa is in a mess as African leaders have failed to get a grip on their countries after decades of independence, still relying heavily on international aid despite the vast quantities of raw materials to be found on their land. Clearly there are some shrewd operators in African countries, who have learned from the way their former imperial capitalist rulers operated how to exploit the locals, collaborate with influential people, and make as much money as possible for themselves. Indeed Western capitalists are just as bad since they seem to have few qualms about collaborating with African rebels by providing them with weapons. Anything goes in the name of profit.

Since the Iraq war people have become even more cynical about the need for war, as the politicians who professed to know better than the rest of the population made a ridiculous decision to go to war based on a highly flawed intelligence report. It is extremely difficult for a politician to stand up and admit to having made a mistake, because it will usually cost him his job, and so the politicians in favour of the war seemed to drift to a general consensus that the war had actually been started to help spread democracy in Iraq. It suddenly had nothing to do with the so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction that they prattled on about before hand.

Most ordinary citizens do not want war, and yet politicians and ruthless capitalists override the average person's wishes to fulfil their own selfish needs. Politicians create a climate of fear which usually results in them getting away with murder, literally, whilst the political establishment is so closely linked to big business that whatever business leaders say, goes. Despite the majority of the population favouring the idea of peace, the decisions and actions taken by a ruthless and influential minority ensures ongoing peace will never be achieved.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Wilkinson.
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