Prevent War, Because “War Is Hell”

War is a bad thing for the world, be it between nations, or between individuals. It affects the economy, the overall state of the world and in most cases, innocent casualties. To prevent war, creating awareness is the first step.
To prevent war, we must first try to understand what causes it. We need to learn more about the history, culture, religions and economies of those war-stricken parts of the world. And address our attitudes about these conditions. It seems everything from early colonialism through global economic changes and geopolitical rivalries, have contributed to poverty, desperation, hatred and, mostly, the religious fanaticism that seems to contribute to war-like circumstances. Though there has never been an actual shooting war between two nuclear powers, the possibility of a new “Hiroshima” is a reality. Issues of national sovereignty and religious reign somehow seem worth the risk of nuclear war. We can only hope that the leaders of these nuclear-arms-holding countries see no conceivable justification of that risk.

Wars, disease, social problems and lack of infrastructure prevent third world and developing countries from being able to gain the insights needed to prevent war-like strife. War breeds poverty like nothing else in existence. One in every five Africans lives in a country strewn with armed conflict. From dealing with the local warlords seeking to expand their control, to organized national armies clashing with their neighbors, the people can barely grow food enough to feed themselves as a result. War destroys the infrastructure and prevents a buildup of anything beneficial that may help their people out of their impoverished condition.

It may be hard to admit but, part of how we've gotten here is the West's tendency to impose our own cultures, values and expectations on these regions without taking the time to tolerate and understand the people we're impacting. People interested in ways to prevent war cannot afford to repeat that mistake. Men are continually, and mistakenly so, inventing bigger weapons of mass destruction. The world continues to get smaller. And countries are becoming more and more dependent on one another for the things they need. The distinction between those starting wars and those fighting wars has been obsolete. These are some of the biggest causes that have made war so gruesome. Since we, people of Earth, are still unable to find the way to peace, our human intelligence has gone bankrupt. People have tried before to find a way to prevent war, but haven’t succeeded. If the problem is to be solved at all, one thing is certain: It will not be solved without a lot of collective, hard thinking. Want to help prevent war? Reduce your dependence on oil.