War Readiness: A Necessary Evil
In its untouched state, mankind has periodically been in state of peace and war. Wars have always been condemned as a cruel, insensitive, and extremely impractical tool for of settling territorial clashes. Countless times, men of good will have made dedicated efforts to preserve the balance of peace in our world. Even though these individuals were not successful in achieving their desired goals, they served to emphasize that the world wanted to live in peace.
Prior historical experience has shown that the desire for peace alone is not enough to ensure it. As is the case with all agreements, there is a trade-off. And there are different ways of making such a compromise. A nation may be able to “obtain” a strained peace by compromising with the enemy country, and agreeing to give appeasements at the expense of national honor, public opinion, and respect. But a jerry-rigged peace of this nature, acquired through concessions with the antagonistic nation, is fleeting, and unintentionally lights the fuse for future international conflicts.
If we observe the factors and events which have disturbed the balance of the world, we shall find that while greed, determination, antagonism, jealousy and superiority have commonly motivated aggressors, perhaps the greatest influential factor in bringing about large-scale wars has been the disruption of the balance of power in a certain area of the world. Many nations, which yielded to self-righteousness and paid little attention to their own territorial defenses, always tempted aggressors, and, as a result were consistently conquered and controlled with puppet governments On the other hand; some countries built up their strength and kept themselves in a state of constant readiness, and likewise commanded respect from the peer nations. Other nations pursued and valued coalitions of peace and friendship with other countries, and subsequently were allowed to live in peace.
A real and lasting peace...