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Is peace on Earth realistically possible? Sadly, I say no, although that answer would be obvious to anyone who follows politics, or has studied the history of our planet.

The reason why peace will never truly take hold on our planet is that sometimes, peace can only come through violent struggle. Lets face it, there are people out there who only respect force, not words. Why does the UN fail? It fails because it has no way to enforce the very resolutions that it sets forth, there is no real force to back up the words that it says.

The United States, a force generally prone to doing good in the world, was founded because of war. The colonists tried talking, and tried to be peaceful, but the British wouldn't budge, and used our colonies for its own good, not for the good of Americans. If you have a grievance, and nobody will listen, do you sit there and take it? No you fight for what you think is right.

Sometimes the use of force is what keeps people safe, and deters violence from spreading even further. For example, the American force in Iraq was credited for squashing the violence that was plaguing Iraq after the US toppled Saddam Hussein. The local militias that sprung up to fight Al-Qaeda also helped bring about a downward trend in the violence post-war.

Not everybody can protect themselves, and not everyone is interested in protecting those who cannot be protected. It is human nature to want as much power for ourselves as if possible, and then not share it with others. As the saying goes "absolute power corrupts absolutely" basically meaning that those who have power will wield it in a way that benefits the ruler, and those close to him.

Even powers that usually do good, can do bad things, or cause violence. The very invasion of Iraq the first time was a violent act, but was in response to a violent act by a ruthless dictator. If the US had not liberated Kuwait, they would have been helpless to defend themselves against a relatively powerful Iraqi army.

Ironically enough, Iraq was in its position to invade because the United States had propped it up so that Iran wouldn't be able to gain too much power in the Middle East. Really, we come full circle, with violence as a necessary evil to prevent an even worse explosion of violence.

We will always have to deal with those who wish to disrupt the peace that we work so hard to attain here on Earth. Sometimes fighting is justified, and therefore will cause violence, even if we cause more violence in the process. Until we figure out how to get people to listen to words, and not to guns, we will never have peace on Earth.

Learn more about this author, Cody Hodge.
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