Some basic rules of conflict
Wars are between sides. When you fight you must chose a side. Even if you defect you are thinking in terms of sides.
Sides can be small as in terrorist, guerilla, mafia or criminal cells right up to massive empires.
In each group there will be a heirarchy and a leader or group of leaders for whome subordinates fight in return for protection, rewards or favour.
When one side loses the leaders of the vanquished are executed and the sub-ordinates are either enslaved as sub-sub-ordinates even below the status of the winning sub-ordinates. Either that or for loyalty to the new rules they are shown mercy.
War today
The significant battles of the last few centuries have been between empires. In particular the British Empire has been at the heart of most battles.
One misunderstanding of World War 1 & 2 is that they were moral crusades against evil regimes. In fact they were a final battle between British Empire and 3 old adversaries: The Austo-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the threat of a resurgent German Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire was the winner when the Germans defeated Rome 476 and they maintained that empire for 1330 years until 1806 when the Napoleonic Empire defeated them. A century later Germany was trying to rebuild its empire and influence in Eastern Europe against British wishes. Anyone who is against the British becomes Axis and all that was needed was something to light the touch paper.
By 1815 Napoleon had been defeated by the British Empire at Waterloo. But that left the other ancient empire the Turkish Ottomans. Founded in 1299 it has always been a target for the Britsih Empire and naturally became Axis as well. World War 1 gave the British the perfect cover to deliver the final fatal blow and it eventually collpased in 1922 to be taken up not explicitly by the British Enpire but by a new confederation of countries loyal to the British named the League of Nations. This was the predecessor to the United Nations fomed after World War 2.
As the British Empire grew it became too large to run for an imperial centre. Just as Rome had to split into 4 separate capitals so the British divided the empire into the new structure of teh United Nations that assumed the legitmacy of a global democratic government but which was in reality governed in such a way that it would never rule against the interests of the British and always against the interests of the Axis.
During World War 2 Britain was usurped by the expanding American Empire and since 1942 London has been entirely subsumed by Washington.
Empires and Conflict
Rory Stewart makes an interesting observation of conflict zones that they are not composed of people particlarly war like. Rather these people are the victims of the opposing political forces that meet at borders. The conflict and social breakdown is caused by the conflicting power structures.
As we look at the world today and history and we see people fighting and turning violent invariably because of competing power structures in their region.
Absurdity
How odd it is then that empires pretend to help by sending weapons to war zones with the official intention of ending the violence through superior fire power. What is actually happening is that empire seeking to gain control over their neighbours create tensions in border regions that cause the fighting. As Rory Stewart says the people become victims exploited in proxy wars.
Peace
For peace to exist this absurdity of feeding weapons into border regions with the self-serving goal of winning influence must end. Peace in border regions is only possibly when powers find agreement, and that depends upon politicians doing their job. And for politicians to do their job, the people who tolerate those politicians must hold them accountable.
When internal politics breaks down, as it has in the American Empire, and before it the British Empire, and politicans are free to expand the empire then conflict in border regions begins and conflicts start.
The American Empire as I write is in the middle of taking this spark of conflict along the borders of its empire and fanned it with huge military investment under the label the “War on Terror.” The ultimate goal is a global empire ruled from Washington. The dream of every empire from the Babylonians onwards.
Personal Responsibility & Consciousness
Ultimately conflict depends upon weak individuals joining in the conflict. But as we saw in World War 1 & 2 there are many tens of millions of weak individuals who are happy to beat each other over the head on the border zones without any apparent awareness of what is going on. A broader consciousness of the nature of warfare and conflict is desperately needed throughout the human race. Hopefully in the future people will start to seek to extinguish the causes of conflict rather than join in and make it worse.
