War, that ever-present human disease (a point of view)

    The painting by Garl Meichers, "Mural of war" (1896) is perhaps an apt figure to bring forth the unanswerable question: why is war such a widespread practice among human beings? Just two years after the painting was finished the United States invaded  Cuba, accusing islanders of setting off a bomb in a U.S. ship harboured in La Habana. That served as a convenient excuse for U.S. forces to curb Spanish colonial power.

   Isn’t it strange that practically all wars are fought in the name of God, freedom, liberty, democracy or any other nice sounding ideal, while time and a little patience indicates that the real motives were such mundane things as taking over territories to expand national bolundaries, getting hold of natural resources, securing geo-poliltical advanage points, making sure the flow of oil keeps factories churning out the products of modern ’civilization.’

    So who should be shocked to read in the New York Times or in other U.S. mass circulation papers that a new "cold war" is developing, insinuating that now instead of the ex-Soviet Union the culprit might well be Iran? And how convenient the timing: coinciding with presidential elections in the U.S. Is it going too far to ask if wars--independently of their apparent justification--are not convenient tools to perpetuate political and economic interersts?

    Oh. If the Republicans win, President George Bush's 'war against terrorism' will certainly drag on and on and perhaps develop new focal points. After all, in announcing the war Bush mentioned an "axis of evil" including Irak, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Syria...

   Oh, who know what might happen should one of the Democratic party candidates win. Mrs. Clinton has only recently realized that the war was a mistake and her compromise to end it doesn't seem to convince the growing number of U.S. voters critical of the war.

   Obama? Will he be able to convince the "military-industrial" complex to look through glasses of another colour, will he be able to resist the pressure of those vested interests accustomed to war, as if it were a natural by-product of the system?