AND THE WINNER IS ....

  ... No one. The original precept says no one in a war is a winner. There are those who are victors for a time. until another conflict arrives ready and steady and too often eager for the next blow.  Whatever is achieved on the battlefield is not necessarily carried over into the civilian world. The short-term effects of being on the "winning" side are often turned over, as what is achieved on the battlefield is too often shed in the civilian milieu.   A 'let's fix those we defeated" arises, and in so doing the victors defeat themselves as the loser prospers and the winners struggle to pay the bills.

Nor, ironically, is there a true long-term decisive winner, for the issues that led to the war are rarely summarily healed, solved. and scabbed over. Inevitably, there are those on both sides of the issues who will demand some kind of compensation or apology, atonement of some sort and it is never enough. The history of mankind is paved over or unpaved, time and time again with never ending issues between nations, and thus we have the constant recurring wars fought time and time again over the same issues, to change the results, The next war is held in abeyance until such time as it is are needed, to serve one ruler or another, one nation or another. whose pride has been piqued and the duels rsultant unsatisfactory in result. It never fails. Or is it rather that it always fails.

Most aggravating is the dangerous stupidity plaguing mankind. We are blind to the truth. Perhaps it is a reality we do not like. Or we feel that we can improve upon that reality. If only we beat the crap out of some other nation. Or concentrate on downgrading some group of people as convenient scapegoats and perennial victim of false accusations. The emotions and the thought process within the human mind is so twisted and tangled that even as they talk peace for the current war, behind the scenes, there are already plans being drawn up as to how to wage and win the next war. And the one after that and the one after that. Ad  infinitem, ad nauseam. End result? We are all losers.

Ever more exasperating is that we are not dealing with new issues. It is the same old, same old. With perhaps a new weapon or two here or there, for always the brains and money are found to fulfill those tasks. Always there is the warmonger never satisfied until the vision of bloodshed reappears and morphs into a reality mankind had been better off without. Evidently, we are slow learners in this matter. Doomed to war and death. Because we cannot simply grasp the truth. War. It's stupidity. It's definite lack of success in any kind of permanent manner. Hence, the eternal preparation for the next war. Yet another war. Unable to fulfill its supposed chores and assignments.

This would be greatly confusing to a visitor from another place or time, from the past or future, one which has learned its lesson. He will look upon this time on earth as a tragic time. Constant needless wars between “tribes”. The denial of the similarities. The exaggeration of the differences.    The constant game of musical chairs for allies and enemies as one becomes the other and the other takes the vacated chair.  Winner 0. In fact, there were never any winners. Its evaluation is always on the debit side. It's red ink mirrors the redness of the bloodshed. 

The visitors of the path mourned the failure of mankind, for its frailties and errors cause great damage in the future until we finally put aside all of our needless hostilities and learned to live together. Those who came visiting from the past are horrified. They had thought that by now people would have learned better. That people would have known what to stress and what not. How to have peace and not make war? How to share our similarities. How together we could complement. our lives and dreams. 

The visitor from the future made his way back to his times, sadly, shaking his head. Swearing to devote his life to ensuring that mankind does not return to such thinking and endangered lives. The visitors from the past hang heads in despair. How long will it take for humankind to understand. How long will it take for them to know, to believe, that to shed blood, to try to overpower others is clearly not the way to create. Better to live in a world of positivity for all.  

Are we not tired of all this horror? Can we not invest our time, our energies, our resources into the difficult but infinitely better times of peace, true peace?

Evidently, this is not within our power. At least not for now. Those of us who have war waged upon us. will be forced to resist those whose is to annihilate them. Wiser leaders will have to be found from among us, the people of this world. Nor must we fall into the trap of solving external affairs of a nation while allowing for the rot of internal dissension to eat us up from within,  

It has replicated itself in our todays.

Please G-d:

Look down upon your creations now struggling so hard. Mired in confusion. 

May You enable us to see through to the truth, thus enabling us, Your servants, to find the wisdom we so desperately need if we are to find within us, the ability and faith to bring about better tomorrows.