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10 April 2017

Cure is the poison

Am reading stuff related to the World wars, the guerrilla warfare and the more recent war on terror... part history, part politics.

One particular author, Joseph Conrad while writing about the The Hague 'Peace' conventions of 1898 and 1907 speaks of them as the "solemnly official recognition of the Earth as a House of Strife".  In its pursuit of peace, to limit and 'humanize' war, the Hague convention, began the codification of warfare.  Not only did it drastically cut down the goal of peace from well-being to non-war, but also create of a category of illegal, illegitimate warfare by listing down how warfare should be carried out.

One might argue that it was only trying to reduce the extent of damage by drawing boundaries of acceptable behaviour.  However, it reduced itself from establishing peace to resolving conflicts... the latter being only a part of the former.  The League of Nations did the same.  Wonder if the United Nations is doing any better?

This is a typical example of how a cure is worse than the disease itself.

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