Cold War II? WWIII? Must war be the answer? NO!
Politics / GeoPolitics Feb 25, 2014 - 10:30 AM GMTBy: Michael_T_Bucci
It is pointless to learn history in order to avoid repeating it if the desire to repeat it is stronger.
I turned to my conservative neighbor and remarked: "At this point, from watching events in the country and in the world, nothing would surprise me! Nothing!" He stared back blankly until I corrected myself: "Come to think of it there is one thing that would surprise me: the NRA endorsing Barack Obama". As a gun-rights activist and Tea Party Patriot, he wasn't amused.
Nor was I surprised nor amused by the disparity between readers of the New York Times who posted comments about the brutality of the Ukrainian government and readers who posted at Russia Today citing the underhanded West for staging a coup in a country that once was part of Russia. To consumers of U.S. mainstream media, anti-government factions in Kiev are pro-democracy "demonstrators"; but to other people in Russia they are "thugs" and agents of John McCain, President Obama's neocon State Department, the EU and NATO. The ball now is in President Vladimir Putin's court; and because everybody agrees it is, he no doubt must act.
But there is almost nothing that surprises or shakes me, not even comparisons made between events today with those of 1914 and 1933. My only certainty is that Cold War II has begun for audiences not yet born to have seen the original staged version. It is pointless to learn history in order to avoid repeating it if the desire to repeat it is stronger.
I was a child of the Bomb, born into the Cold War, Truman, Korea, Eisenhower and McCarthy. My classmates and I hid under cafeteria tables in the 1950's during air raid drills. Our Catholic school nuns encouraged us to pray "for the conversion of Russia". Off the coast of Atlantic City were small fishing trawlers. We were told they are Russians spying on us. In a nearby city, a residential house hoisted a sign "Get US out of the UN!" The Birchers still use it. At age twelve in 1959, I bought a Telefunken short-wave radio from money earned delivering newspapers supplemented by money donated by an uncle who helped raise me. The world of news on short-wave went far beyond Huntley-Brinkley's fifteen minute nightly broadcasts on NBC. I was probably the only seventh-grader in my class who watched network news, let alone listened to news stories reported in dramatically differently ways by Voice of America, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Moscow and Radio Havana Cuba. With no help from anyone who could help me sort these disparities, I learned to think for myself. I learned news stories weren't reported thoroughly by any one source, and sometimes weren't reported at all. Each broadcast had a piece of the truth but not the whole truth. I learned that English language broadcasts weren't identical to ones reported in other languages. I learned that what sounded like airplanes revving in a hanger was America "jamming" the broadcasts of foreign countries beaming to other foreign countries. I learned about the power of media to shape and mold perceptions, distort truths and reality, create fear, incite populations to war. I learned about propaganda. I learned about my country.
America has militarily projected itself into all four corners of the world and now is in "surge" mentality. It is risking all life on this planet in order to occupy and control it. Propaganda will not convert Russia into a NATO ally or China into a subservient state to western billionaires any more than it can change paper dollars into gold. But it can convert Americans into warriors for possible future confrontations with Russia and China. And it can convert British, EU, Russian and Chinese people as well.
Each generation faces the world anew, though there is little in the world that wasn't already faced by preceding generations and thought resolved. At some future date, the globe will realize the futility of war, genocide and murder. The lessons will repeat until learned.
During Vietnam, I visited my family. I was depressed and forlorn over war and injustice. My aunt turned and scolded me: "There's a God in Heaven!" she remonstrated. I was not one to discount God or Heaven, but to believe I should do nothing was heresy and denial of my morality and conscience. So I shot back: "Yes, but God works through people!" There was silence. She turned back to her cooking and I down to my newspaper.
God does nothing (it seems). We do it all (it seems). That's the "set-up", if you will. We are the "doers" inspired by good or evil. If we want war, we create it. If we want peace, we create it. It's always our choice of creations. It is "intended" that it be "our choice". We alone are responsible for that choice and the consequences of it, not another person, nation or God. We alone are responsible for evolving or devolving or remaining stagnant. Who are we? What do we want for ourselves, children, nation and planet? When will this lesson finally be learned? When will we allow ourselves to evolve?
The past is the past. World War II and the Cold War are past. Let them remain past. The future is but a thought made in the present. If that thought is an intention to replay the past, then today and tomorrow will become that intention. What exists now is all that exists and has ever existed. This moment is forever. Therefore, to arrive at peace tomorrow is to be peaceful today, for tomorrow is today.
Think of these things now as nations are being turned against other nations by the power of media and state propaganda. Think what purpose division, hate, murder and war serve.
Each generation must face these choices. So far, no generation has brought lasting peace because war was always chosen and war is always answered by another war, not peace. War will never bring lasting peace, but only more war, ad infinitum.
To arrive at peace tomorrow, be peaceful today. From there humanity as a whole will evolve.
When the banner of peace is raised higher than armaments by people of every nation acting together and in unity, wars will end.
Say the Americans: "I will not make war or contribute to it."
Say the Russians: "I will not!"
Say the Chinese: "I refuse!"
Say the Arab: "I decline!"
Say the European: "No!"
Say the British: "Enough!"
Say humanity: "I now can evolve!"
God works through people.
Michael T Bucci is a 66 year-old retired public relations executive currently residing in Maine. He has written nine books on practical spirituality collectively titled The Cerithous Material.
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