You write beautifully, and here, especially, I am so grateful, because you have written a timeless gem.
A friend lately asked me, how did I think that we could end wars. "I just want to stop the killing." Me, too.
She asked that in the context of, as liberals are want, their notion that wars happen because people like war, people ("militarists") want war, and that if we pursue peace, if we only would, there will be peace.
I told her that warfare is a basic human institution; it may even be a basic human condition; that, the best we can do, is keep it to a dull roar.
Unfortunately, as usual, the time limit for her listening to me, expired ...
I'd like to have continued:
To have peace, we must have a system of justice that the people have sovereign power over at all times. We must adhere to the rule of law. We must preserve the keystone of this system, its constitution. We must amend it only by the procedures that we have agreed upon. We must not bend the words to mean other than their original intent.
Wars happen most because original intent is violated. The grounds upon which we agreed to live in peace, are not maintained. In effect, peace treaties are broken.
There are many reason why they are broken, yet wars start over the attending disagreements.
It's that simple.
Our Constitution is a peace treaty.
Yes. Brilliantly stated.
Ours was the first government based on and strictly limited by a written document - the Constitution - which specifically forbids it to violate individual rights or to act on whim. The history of the atrocities perpetrated by all the other kinds of governments - unrestricted governments acting on unprovable assumptions - demonstrates the value and validity of the original political theory on which this country was built.--Ayn Rand, "Censorship: Local and Express." 1982