Sunday, December 23, 2007

Avoiding conflict is important

Dear Colleagues

Conflict is a old as human history.

By now the human race should have figured out that violent conflict is not a good way to resolve disagreements. There are better ways.

Though people have become more knowledgable, they have not necessarily become more sensible. As a result of scientific progress, the secrets of atomic energy were uncovered ... and we have been able to build atomic power stations to generate electricity and atomic bombs that have the power to end the human race.

Conflict that might result in the massive use of atomic bombs must be avoided.

But conflict that involves lesser instruments of war must also be avoided and contained. Light arms of the 20th century are far more lethal than the arms of previous times ... and there was more killing in wars of the 20th century than at any time in history. Worse ... there was more killing in the second half of the last century than in the first half.

There is a theme to many areas of Tr-Ac-Net interest. Physical facts about the conflict are better known than the underlying reasons for the conflict. WHY was it necessary to have the conflict? HOW was it that the conflict got out of hand, and so many people were killed and otherwise affected by the conflict?

Surely we should know a lot more about the reasons why conflict was not avoided. Why did the world's leadership not get involved in time before the bloodshed got out of hand.

Some wise people know some of the answers. But most journalists don't know much of this, and the mainstream media does not give this material much coverage. As a result, public is badly underinformed ... to the detriment of the global society.

Please help inform me, at least ... and Tr-Ac-Net will try to do its part.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

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