I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR and there is a story about the President of Columbia, President Santos, winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, even after the voters rejected the peace plan he brokered to stop 50 years of war (http://n.pr/2dxcFcm). As they were discussing how Santos became president, with his history of fighting the insurgents, and then his transition once he became president to peace talks, it struck me that, suddenly, he is incredibly unpopular. He brokered a treaty to end a 50 year war...what else do people want?
The answer, I realized, is that the people don't want peace. They want victory. They don't want the fighting to end, they want their enemy destroyed.
Victory is a win-condition. It decimates the enemy, creates a clear victor, deliniates right and wrong. The Civil War, WWI and WWII - these all had victories, where the winners could proclaim themselves to be advocates of peace while the losers were trampled under heel, buried in reparations and debts, stripped of economic strength and, most importantly, their dignity.
Peace is a process. It takes time, it requires that both sides give a little, it takes negotiations. It's hard. No one may come out a clear victor, but the goal is a standing, lasting peace, one that, over time, heals, which means that both sides must retain their dignity, must be able to live and grow under the terms. For true peace, the conflicts will fade away over time. New ones may arise, but they will not be a rehashing of the past, because peace allows wounds to heal.
If we had focused on peace after the Civil War, would we still be fighting the culture wars that arose from making our own citizens feel as their own was endangered, disregarded, wiped out?
Would WWII have happened if Germany hadn't been stripped of their dignity in the Versaille Treaty after WWI?
Would we be fighting ISIS if we had found a better way in the Middle East over the decades of European and American involvement in the region, rather than cutting up their borders and gutting their culture?
Peace is not popular. It does not generate parades. It costs both sides. When you call for peace, ask yourself: Do you want peace or victory? Be honest with yourself. Do you want to be able to sit down at a table with the people you were formerly in conflict with, with dignity preserved on all sides, prepared to give some up yourself for a lasting, true peace? Or do you want to bring them to heel, to show them who is boss, to ensure they don't dare mess with America again?
These are different. They require different tools to achieve. You cannot call for peace and then support actions aimed towards victory, thinking they will achieve the same result.
So be honest with yourself. What do you want? What are you willing to support?
