The war to end all wars?

We've heard this before. The idea was floated during World War I and after it. People thought that we'd fight this war, the "right" side will win, and then we'd build a world where war would not happen. Germany and Austria started the war with a flimsy veil, the assasination of an archduke. Like always, it was easier to paint the world in black and white or good and evil. Throughout the war and after that the Kaiser of Germany was deemed to be "evil" or mad just like Putin is today. The Germans were the agressors after all. So, when the allied forces won, Germany was severly punished, and had a huge debt that it had to repay. The punishment, and the economic turmoil that followed led to World War Two. By then only about 1% of the debt was paid. Then the role of the evil, mad person was played by Hitler. Later the role was temporarily filled by Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Bashar al-Assad. Today, it's Putin. We sanction Russia. We block its bugdet, we block its oil, and blame Putin for everything - he is evil, he is mad, he is the cause of war, it's Putin's war. Everybody cheers and seems to think the powers to be are doing everything they can. We cheer sanctions. We cheer when weapons are sent and we ask for more weapons for Ukrainans who have to defend themselves to survive the invasion. What we don't see is a way out of this war.

We've seen this sort of cheering during the pandemic, but the pandemic seems to have suddenly ended. The media is only able to focus on one story-line at a time. Restrictions are quietly being lifted. COVID-19 is no longer news worthy, but back in 2019-2020 every power to be thought the zero-COVID policy was a great idea. They practiced selective track and trace of some of the cases they knew about when it was known COVID had already spread beyond any tracking possibility and people cheered while COVID positive patients were placed in hospitals and old people homes to make the world a safer place. They'd say it's the first time you can stay home, do nothing and help. Well, staying home, and avoiding crowds does reduce virus spread, but the zero-COVID policy took that to an extreme that crippled institutions and people while we cheered.

I take the train to work and I walk to go shopping with a bag with wheels, which helps me do the carrying, pulled behind me. So, the increase in the oil price might not matter to me directly. I do fly two or three times a year and I am known to take my children along. I own a car, which I occasionaly drive when I take the children out. I have also been wearing the same coat for the more than ten years and I know that very little of what I do matters in the grand scheme of things. However, I don't see the sanctions as a solution. I don't see the way out of this war yet, and I don't see a way out of future wars.

The US is a superpower. So, it was not punished for invading Syria, Afganistan, Iraq, etc. The US cannot be punished since there is nobody stronger than them yet. OK, perhaps China is getting to be stronger in many ways, but they seem to want to do their own invading and Xi plays a similar role to Putin only next door to Russia. But punishing is not the point. Stopping the war, picking up the pieces and avoiding a similar tragedy from following the same script is what is needed. So far we have replaced world wars with these proxy wars that follow a script, and happen over, over again until when? until nuclear war? They often had the US on one side and Russia on the other. Each arming people and causing fraticide. This war is different in that Russia is the aggressor, and not the US. It's still fraticide since Ukraine was once part of Russia and many people there speak Russian, but want to be free. Russia has been punished for the Ukraine invasion. The punishment has not stopped the war. It's like expecting austerity measures to fix an enconomy. They might be popular, but they do not work. So, what else can be done? The popular answer is to destroy the evil side. But are the people who fight in this war on either side evil? World War I and II had no winners. But how do proxy wars differ? They are not on the soil of anyone who matters, which makes it easier to gain from such wars. Of course, proxy wars should not happen. War should not happen. There must be a way to stop it and to stop future wars. But how? Where is the golden bridge that Russia and Ukraine can follow to end this war?

Oh, moving weapons and personnel is expensive, and they just got started. So, the show must go on. There is a Serbian proverb that has been quoted all over twitter and facebook. It says that during wartime politicians send weapons, rich people give food, and the poor give their children. Then when the war is over, the politicians get back leftover amunition (and make more), the rich grow more food, and the poor search for the graves of their children. All past proxy wars have taken many years. The people in the country that was to be destroyed always fought for freedom, and ended up less free than before the war. However, none of the aggressors were sanctioned before. Today we sanction Russia without stating when the sanctions will end and without providing a golden bridge for the war to end. Is Putin really mad? Will he make a suicidal move and use atomic bombs or is it just another proxy war with the script slightly altered where Putin is playing the lead role and the sanctions add the spice that scares and makes the play exciting? The world bets on this latter scenario. And howevermuch it all seems like a play we've seen before, the war is real. It should stop without further escalation in days not years since the people who die are real, too.