Pali:-
We better avoid wars, don't we?
Well Amen to that! The only trouble is that we can't always avoid them. Heaven knows we (the Brits) tried to avoid them in the 1930's, at the cost of your country amongst others, Pali! But in the end we failed and the rest is, well, history. One we did avoid though was WW3, and we avoided it by being ready to fight and to be seen to be ready to fight. If we had failed there as well, your country would again have been in the front line and the destruction levelled upon it, and all the others, would have made what Harris presided over seem minor league.
We always look back on past major wars with disgust, not only at the cost in lives and materiel, but also in the way they were conducted, as though we could have conducted them better ourselves. Far more appropriate perhaps to judge ourselves rather than judge others. What are we doing to avoid future conflict? Is our country ready to stand up and be counted, or merely to rely on others to do the dirty work? Are we ready and willing to fight, or do we prefer to criticise those who are? Better by far to carry a big stick and talk quietly rather than shrill empty handed at those prepared to confront evil.
War has a nasty habit of being unavoidable, I'm afraid, no matter how agreed we are about its evilness.
Thank you for posting here, Pali, a welcome fresh outlook from afar!