The above quote comes from the esteemed philosopher, George Santayana; and for a certainty, rings as true today as back when those words were first written, for indeed, only the dead have literally seen the end of war, for nation upon nation, civilization upon civilization, humankind upon humankind, has not come close to stopping or overcoming its bloodlust, between one to the other.
To believe, especially in those western nations, that we are truly a civilized people, is belied by all of the incursions, battlements, fights, and wars that continually go on, as apparently being the only way to “resolve” differences between two or more parties in conflict with one another. This is absolutely pathetic, and reflects that humankind seemingly has no capacity to understand that wars and conflicts of all sorts cannot and will not ever successfully end with “a war to end all wars” or anything along those same misguided lines.
One would think that in consideration that America is the most powerful nation that the world has ever known, which clearly prides itself of being the bastion of liberty, freedom, and free thinking, would desire to lead this world, by actual good example. If, America, is actually trying to lead by example, they have indeed done the poorest of jobs in doing so – of which, pretty much the only thing that demonstrates that America is not completely without merit despite its bellicosity, is the humane aid that it provides throughout the world, including to those civilians and also institutions that they have “inadvertently” bombed or destroyed, by providing monetary compensation, as well as the material aid required in the re-building, so of.
It doesn’t make any common sense that we find that humankind throughout all of the decades, centuries, and millenniums, has not learned apparently one thing about the futility of warfare and violence to meaningfully resolve conflict, that is substantially any different than when Christianity first came of age. Indeed, regrettably, in our modern age we are ever in more mortal danger because of not only the sophistication and power of the killing machines so created, but also by the inconvenient fact that never has it been easier to kill or to destroy something or somebody by the application of a machine to do so on behalf of those that have activated it, or through the mere pressing of a finger onto some sort of trigger apparatus.
To end warfare and to successfully resolve conflict, necessitates that nations demonstrate the self-restraint to think through the consequences, so of, before acting. The pathway to hell, is built upon the billions upon billions of dollars, expended throughout the world, year after year, on munitions and armaments that have as their only avowed purpose, the destruction of human flesh as well as of infrastructures of all types. Those that do not have the sensibility to understand that more weapons equates to more warfare, and never to more peace, have got it intuitively wrong. To believe then that lasting peace and justice will ever come through the barrel of a gun is a delusion, that humankind will continue to live through, era after era, until it changes its thinking from that which is wrong to that which is right.