Can wars be prevented? Is it possible for the world to live in peace?
From reading history, we see that wars happen because of human greed, political and economic motivations, and the desire to control other nations.
A social scientist from the University of Michigan in the US did some research on wars. His research looked at 90 wars from the 19th century to the 1960s — or to be specific, from 1816 to 1965. England and France had the record for causing wars. France was involved in 18 wars, winning 14 and losing 4. England was involved in 16 wars which it won. Turkey was involved in 16 wars, losing 11 and winning 5. The researcher concluded that from 1816 to 1965, the world was at peace for only 24 years. In every decade, a war broke out somewhere. One historian said that these wars were the continuous work of politi-cians who wanted to control other people. We find the United States gathering all its forces against Iraq these days. It wants to control the oil fields. That is the reason and not because there are links between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. Fighting Iraq will only lead to more terrorism. If there is a war, the situ-ation in the Middle East will be made worse. When the war is over, the region will want to know what will happen and how foreign countries will organize their interests.
Iraq will not be another Afghanistan because the country is unique with its his-tory, geography and wealth. Saddam Hussein will be just another dictator who ruled Iraq, destroyed its wealth and controlled his unfortunate people.
There is hope that the Arab nations will emerge from this crisis as a united Arab nation. There is hope that the Arab nations will have the chance to live in peace with people around the world.
Arab News From the Local Press 19 February 2003
