Recipe for Peace

While pondering the horrors of the Vietnam conflict back in my teens, I wrote a poem that had a line

“While old men play the game called war,

The smooth dark stones keep adding up to more.”

Not great poetry, but an accurate representation of my sentiment at the time as friends were drafted or worried about being drafted into a war over which they seemed to have little control; most weren’t even old enough to have a vote. It just seemed to me that the wrong people were making the decisions about war. The leaders on both sides weren’t the ones dying, losing their homes, being wounded and disabled. Remember the slogan, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” I liked that idea. My imagination went wild imagining people on both sides of a conflict throwing down their weapons and saying, “Not me! You want a war; you fight it!” Leaders cannot make a war by themselves, the army of ordinary people living ordinary lives have to show up ready to kill each other. So, why do we let leaders send us into battle? Most people will say that if we don’t fight, the enemy will, and they will win. We are fighting for our freedom they will say. I wonder how free I am if a government either mine or the other person’s can force me to kill someone. Civil disobedience seems to work pretty well at defending freedom. Of course by defying government authority, one could end up dying, but isn’t that what the issue was in the first place, being willing to die for the cause of individual liberty?

So, what if we don’t have war anymore? How will we decide conflicts? I have a recipe for the process of making peace. The two sides with the disagreement should each select five young couples who have just become parents and have other children under the age of five. Both governments should agree to abide by any peace terms the young people draw up to settle the conflict. The process should begin with a week of living together with their children, eating together, having the children play together, watching the children as they sleep, and helping each other care for the children.

After this week of getting to know each other, both governments should be permitted a specified amount of time to explain their side of the conflict to the panel of young parents. Then it would be up to the parents to create a treaty that would prevent war and provide a solution that the parents would agree to follow in the interest of their children. Their agreements would be binding on the leaders. I wonder if there are any governments brave enough to put this process to the test.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?
I believe that the United States is very close to finding out if we maintain our volunteer military.

Some links:

Children of War
To End all Wars
Children's Peace Pavilion