By DOUGLAS REILLY
Los Alamos

General Dwight David Eisenhower commanded the European Theater of Operations in WWII; he later served two terms as President of the United States. My favorite quote of Ike’s is, “the people of the world want peace, and they want it so badly that eventually the governments will have to stand back and let them have it”.

This states an interesting truth; namely, that people all over want peace, but the governments continue to fight wars. Is anarchy the answer? I think not. What is the answer? Is there an answer? I’m not sure there is.

Consider the present. There are wars in Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, numerous African nations, and parts of Latin America. One might even say there are wars on the streets of America.

We, homo sapiens, are the only species that kills for sport, kills others because of different skin color, ethnicity, religion, ideas, etc. We cannot change our species, and we’re unlikely to evolve into one more peaceful.

I think we must try to elect leaders who hate war and act to reduce the possibility of war. This must include dramatically reducing our militaries, our weapons and weapons systems, defense budgets, i.e., our war toys. We must also increase our diplomatic corps and budgets.

As a Secretary of Defense recently said when a President said he was reducing the funding of the State Department, ‘Sir, then you’ll have to increase my budget for bullets and arms’.

I can remember adages and song lines like, “in peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons”, “Where have all the flowers gone?”

“Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war”

“You Masters of War…You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansions
While the young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud…”

You may say this is just Pollyanna-like; however, I’d add this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”