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Understanding War leads to a better understanding of Peace



The Concept of War

The first question is precisely what we mean by the term "war" because the answer to this question affects the whole matter concerning the rules that govern it. War is an act of force, violence that has the characteristic of being desired by the states. Robbery, murder are violent acts that are prohibited by the laws of the state (or community or other equivalent entity). The war is violence but it does not only admits to be as such but also orders the other organs of the state to implement it.. The murderer is punished, but the warrior who kills thousand souls in war is rewarded. The bitter fact is that the one who kill a man is a murderer, but whoever kills a thousand (in war) is a hero.

Even the most primitive communities well distinguished between the two cases in which violence is committed against the law (usually within the context of a group) and the violence committed against the rival groups (tribes, clans). In primitive societies where the state organization was in the embryonic stage,the clashes between the groups generally continued relentlessly and all men were supposed to be warriors. There is thus a clear distinction between war and peace and between civil and military.

From this fact it is often misunderstood that the war emerged with the civilizations. In fact, the armed struggles have unfortunately always accompanied human history, although there are periods and civilizations more bellicose and other more peaceful. We can say with more perfection that with the development of civilization, the practice of war became more organized. The special categories of men engaged in this activity of war were termed as military, exactly as some of them are born artisans, musicians, merchants etc.

The degree of violence and cruelty of war has changed continuously according to circumstances and situations. You can not say, unfortunately, that with the development of civilization, it becomes less bloody. In primitive cultures the wars were highly ritualized: in some American Indian tribes one could hit the opponent with a stick, in the Philippines the oratorical competitions ie the war of words made the things very easy. It is so unfortunate that today in contemporary society we do not discriminate terrorist attacks and devastating carpet bombing. In the Middle Ages knights would fight few wars and may not kill more than a meager, countable number of rivals. The savage massacres in the modern world wars or the wars fought in the name of religion severely surpass the devastation.In 1800s the wars had a limited human cost, and most of the people were not even involved, while in 1900s we had the greatest tragedies of military history. The 2000s will display more devastation, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are just recent examples. Peace was never a priority for those who wanted to implement the policies through use of force.

In any case, private violence being against the law is never given protection. But the violence of war by virtue of being sponsored by the state, is not only protected rather justified and gives birth to its own laws, called the "laws of war"


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