War ... what is it good for?

I was morally opposed to the war in Iraq, as I morally oppose all wars. On so many levels this war was wrong.

Hubby and I have an ongoing discussion about pacifism and the alternatives to violent conflict. The thing that angers me most is that wars never occur in a vacuum. It is very rare that something very suddenly goes wrong. There is always a history leading up to the point of conflict. A series of events that turns a "friend" into an "enemy".

I believe if (potentially unpopular) political decisions are taken early on in a situation, there would be the distinct possibility that war could be avoided. But politics always seems to deal with the now. It never seems to look at the long term impacts of today's policy (lets face it, that's probably why we're seeing more articles like this - Peru's glaciers in retreat, Alaskan people tell of climate change, and Siberia's rapid thaw causes alarm - but more of those later).

I feel this instinctively but I'm not well-read in that field so can never fully articulate my argument. Blackrat to the rescue! A couple of days ago he wrote a very insightful post - go, take a look.

And, to answer the question in the title ... absolutely nothing, of course!