I haven’t got my Fraser Institute Decoder Ring in the mail yet, but True Peace = Peace By Force, I guess.
Hey, it is a model that has proven to work, for a while…. e.g. Stalin in the Soviet Union, Russia in the Balkans, Hussein in his own country, Britain in India. Unfortunately, though, when peace is maintained by fear of the imposition of force it tends to flare up rather explosively and uncontrollably.
One authoritarian government replacing another isn’t peace. I suspect that whatever governance Iraq ends up with after the war will look a lot more like Saddam’s than ours.
Lots of Iraqis have been living rather peacefully for the last 12 years, except for sporadic bombings by US aircraft enforcing their “No-Fly Zone” by attacking ground targets. I’m sure they feel really peaceful right now.
I guess if I had a specific point to make in this ramble, it is that in these modern times most of us humans spend most of our days living our lives of quiet desperation, trying to protect our friends and families, and trying to have a little fun now and then. In the grand scheme of things these activities are affected very imperceptibly by who happens to hold the reigns of government.
-Ian.