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No one likes war, yet there has hardly been a moment in the last century where there wasn't a war going on someplace. Humans may want to be a peaceful race but they are not one, and so at times it seems as if the only chance for peace on earth is for someone to find a wishing ring. Yet while on its surface this wish seems nearly perfect as you look more carefully at human nature it appears more like a wish on a monkey's paw than a wishing ring, giving you the exact wish you asked for but in the worst possible way.

So the question becomes, is peace on earth possible, what would the cost be, and should we pay that cost and are we willing?

There is a simple way to end all the wars on earth. All we have to do is surrender. This was most nearly achieved during World War 2. Had Hitler taken over England and been able to focus fully on the Soviet Union without the American entering the war we may currently be living on a world without war, of course it would also be without democracy, Jews, poles, homosexuals Christians and any other minority not popular with the third Reich.

And, that leads us to the problem of peace on earth. War may be a horrible thing, something that no sane person should ever like, but they aren't the worst thing. This is as true today as it was in the time of World War II. Consider for a moment Darfur. This is one of the most telling events of our modern history. We can see the worst of human nature in this conflict, not just in those who choose to kill each other but those who choose to ignore this because they want peace.

So what is the cost of world peace? Assuming that we do not enter into an immediate utopia the only real solutions available are to allow those evil men who rule vast majorities of the world to continue to do so and do nothing, or to create some overwhelming authority that limits freedom to such an extent that no one has the ability to fight back.

It is possible that one of these choices is the better. Perhaps we should allow those that commit genocide to continue in the ideal of a world without War. Perhaps we should give dictatorial power to a single small group that can control humans so well that they do not have the opportunity to fight, but in the end I think that the better solution is to attempt to use war, horrible tool that it is, in the best way we understand. To fight for peace and human rights in hope that eventually we can help create stable and solid democracies throughout the world. In doing so slowly work to an age when we can have, freedom, human rights and peace. Until then, perhaps we need to be willing to accept that two out of three is the best we can expect.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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