and also by our children who grow to be adults like us.
Thanks for your message, dottiann. I have no idea how to avoid this, since we have been sending our children off to war since year dot. The trick is to realise that the reason they are going is because their innocence is being exploited: their youth inspires them into thinking they can do something about it, they are fighting the right fight. And so, we must no longer consider them as children, for they are soldiers, and they bomb and kill, misguidedly.

Regarding the comments. True, money matters, apparently. The backlash from Iraq conflict may be positive. America's finances are unstable. And dirty money and private interests rule.

However!
We can have peace if we concentrate on the right things. It is like learning to ride a bicycle. You can't do it by thinking about falling over, how you will hurt yourself. All that does is make you go slower, until we end up arguing about politics, money, agendas, and specifics. What we need is to go faster, and by so doing, it becomes safer: focus on some ideal ahead, peddle, maintain balance, and strangely enough, we just about all learn to ride the bicycle.
The social equivalent is trickier. We need some ideal up ahead, and some awareness of our balance. So, dottiann, peacetalk, and susan: can any of us do the analogical conversion and come up with practical equivalent to learning to ride the bicycle, that is for social cohesion????

ps
I believe we should stop thinking we are going to bring peace to the world. We can't. Not now. We have to think ahead to a time where our children have grown up and can join us to bringing peace to the world. To that end, we can start preparing; this site is one way...

Dear Dotti, I am afraid the peace will not prevail neither this year nor in the near future, as long as all is about dirty money and privat interest. It will remain a dream and illusion. For so long we will see chlidren provided as "lambs for slaughter" to militant and other political manuverings.

http://www.propeace.eu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11

Please help us to revise the image held by the rest of the world that this country is able to affort another Iraq. We can't even afford this Iraq! Some of the wealthiest people in the world may claim U.S. citizenship, but they are not the ones supporting the war financially due to their tax shelters, outsourcing, globalization, etc. Our middle class no longer exists; the frequency distribution of income is bimodal. (For readers with less knowledge of statistical jargon, that means the "bell curve" has morphed into a lopsided crescent with a small peak at the wealthy end and a much bigger peak at the poverty end.) In the aftermath of Katrina, We the People reached deeply into our pockets to respond to the survivors because our tax dollars were directed to "the war effort." In fact, Katrina survivors received aid from the people of Bangladesh! How embarrassing is THAT? Our national debt now exceeds eight trillion dollars. Our economic situation is being compared to that of the former Soviet Union when they invaded Afghanistan, and the doomsayers fear that our economic collapse is imminent. And you are right - we can't afford it morally, either. Anger, guilt, cynicism, and disillusionment are rampant. It is time to put all of our resources, both human and material, into healing.

Editor, propeace.net

The long-time effect of the war in Iraq on the global peace and democratic values is far more devastating and reaching than the US government admits.

The credibility of USA as a democratic state committed to the global peace and human right has suffered a big damage. The focus of the Human right organizations, the aid organizations and the world community has drifted from the poverty, ongoing wars, violation of human right and genocides in the many countries in the third world to the war in Iraq. Badly needed development aid in Africa is diverted to “rebuild” Iraq.

The UNO did not succeed to prevent the war, but on a long-term the UNO is it’s the “winner” of this war. The time where the super power was considered as a righteous and just peace-keeper is over.
Economically and financially America is able to afford another Iraq, but can it afford it morally?

I feel your pain, and I feel even worse that it's not just about children and war. It's about the priorities of our culture that say that people are expendable. I am immediately reminded of the aftermath of Katrina when the belated assistance that was sent to the survivors stranded in the maelstrom was in the form of armed troops to stop looting rather than drinking water to help the people. Unfortunately, it's money, not people, that matter.

Editor, propeace.net