An embrace in the time of a war_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

An embrace in the time of a war

Just days before the opening ceremony, about 100 Chinese veteran generals and soldiers gathered in the Peace Temple near the Beijing Great Wall to pray for peace. The war veterans announced a "2008 Peace Declaration by Chinese Veteran Soldiers", calling for a "global truce during the (Beijing) Olympic Games" and "turning swords into ploughs".

Olympic Truce represents mankind's inborn love and yearning for peace.

But why is there war in the world?

Although it is a hard question for anyone to answer in a simple way and there are as many reasons as one can list, the largest, and the most essential, reason is: conflict of interests.

War used to be an effective means to grab as large a share of interests as possible when resources were insufficient to go around among different groups (clans, tribes and nations) of people due to poor means of production. In modern and contemporary times, as technology and civilization both advanced, war was less and less used for direct division of wealth. Market order and social rules, or contract, are believed to be the dominant force to determine the division of interests in the world. So long as every member of community observes law and order, there is no need for war.

This theory, however, is a sham one. The question is: is law and order established and maintained in a way fair to every member of community, the world for example? Unfortunately, the answer is negative. The contemporary global economic order and strategic order are not fair to all nations and regions. Unfair division of interests can lead to armed conflicts. Therefore, in the final analysis, a fairer and more reasonable world order - economic and political - is the most fundamental way to eliminate war.