Sounds of war - echoes of peace

Knowing the catastrophic consequences of wars both to themselves and those they attempt to destroy, humankind continues to engage in them. There are some who are confounded by these destructive actions. After all, have not human beings placed themselves at the pinnacle of the evolutionary scale justifying this placement on human traits stressing cognitive functions that have produced intellectual, logical, rational beings who have clarified so many mysteries of the universe? Creatures with such endowments could never allow themselves to engage in violence of any kind never mind wars. If this perspective is accurate then why do wars occur? That question will be answered further along in this article. However before addressing it some background information regarding human interactions must be provided.

It is true that human beings perceive themselves as reasonable creatures, and there is no question that they can be at times. However, human interactions for the most part are not determined by reason, logic, and intellectual capability. They are determined by survival and socializing forces, neither of which relate to cognitive abilities. Each force incites specific motivators which initiate specific behaviors under specific circumstances. Survival forces are called into play whenever human beings feel that their lives and well-being are threatened. The motivators, behaviors, and circumstances that incite them constitute the Survival Behavior Set.

Survival behaviors prevent the formation of social units. Social units offer strengthened resistance to attacks and joint efforts that maximize human productivity. Humankind has developed a behavior set which allows them to form social units. This behavior set constitutes the Socialization Behavior Set. In well-functioning social unit motivators from this set neutralize survival motivators and initiate socialization behaviors. Unfortunately the strength of the survival force is such that it may overcome socialization force influences leading to initiation of the survival behavior set. However, in a well-functioning social unit, socializing forces usually can exert their influence neutralizing the effects of the survival force. If it cannot completely neutralize that force, it usually can modify it. Such modifications give rise to such attitudes and behaviors such as prejudice, defacement and exclusion to name but a few.

The ability to neutralize the effects of survival forces varies from one individual to another and is influenced by three factors: Cognitive Function; Genetics; and the Environment in which an individual is raised. It is the interplay of these three variables that they determine how one human being will relate to another. With this background information it is time to address the question raised in the article's first paragraph i.e. why do wars occur?

There are four survival behaviors incorporated in the Survival Behavior Set. Of the four the most destructive is Unlimited Aggression. Unlimited Aggression is motivated by raging fury and leads to total destruction of anyone or anything that threatens a human being's existence. Raging fury's intensity is such that coherent identification of the predatory threat is frequently obscured. That obscurity often leads to the death of innocent men, women, and children, as well as total destruction of their property.

Unlimited Aggression can be directed by one sub group of society against another as African-Americans in Los Angeles against police and Caucasians in 1992. These violent interactions are called riots. When they occur against the government by an organized sub-group of society, they are called insurrections. Whenever they are directed by one nation against another, they are called wars. However, all share the same action i.e. Unlimited Aggression, albeit on a different scale.

It is not likely that these violent interactions can be totally eliminated given the strength of survival forces. But it is possible to create environments that would minimize their occurrence. This article identifies areas of conflict which could benefit by the creation of such an environment. Since differences between human beings strengthen survival forces and weaken socialization ones, whereas commonalities strengthen socializing forces and weaken survival ones, it would have to be an environment that minimizes differences and maximizes commonalities.

Two of these areas can be found in the Middle East. They are the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Shia-Sunni conflict. The third one is international terrorism and the fourth one relates to circumstances existing in the United States of America today, where many government policies strengthen survival motivators rather than socializing ones. Of the four survival behaviors only one, Unlimited Aggression, will be discussed in this article as it is the behavior that drives all riots, insurrections and wars. It must be curtailed in order to bring about peaceful interactions. In order to accomplish that end, survival force influence must be weakened. Since differences strengthen survival and commonality strengthens socialization, commonalities between the warring parties must be identified. Two commonalities shared by those engaged in the Arab-Israeli conflict are acceptance of a common ancestry and acceptance of the Book of Genesis. This commonality can be utilized to develop a pathway to peaceful resolution to their conflict by carefully reassessing the Covenant of Abraham on which both Arabs and Israelis base their claim to the "promised land."

The commonality shared by Shia and Sunni populations is Islam. Although there may be some disagreements regarding each denomination's interpretation of Islamic standards and codes, there is acceptance of the Koran and the Hadrith by both parties. That shared acceptance can be utilized to establish a very different caliphate than the one that existed prior to World War I. a caliphate which could resolve the differences between the two populations and establish peace.

International Terrorism does not lend itself to a commonality approach to minimize survival force influence and unlimited aggression. The reason is that there are no international codes and standards in place that all nations must follow. However, it is clear that such international codes and standards must be established in order to create commonality on an international level. The United Nations has that capability, and can begin to explore creation of these codes and standards which could promote international unity and decrease the influence of survival forces. They can also explore the possibility of developing a common international language, which would allow all the world's peoples to communicate with each other as nothing arouses survival force motivators more than an inability to understand or speak with another human being.

Although there has not as yet been overwhelming Unlimited Aggression between United States citizens, the government's policies which strengthen differences between sub-groups of society and the favor one sub-group over another has shifted attachment away from the national community to the sub-group to which the individual belongs. There are numerous sub-groups in all nations. They include groups of individuals who share a common religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, a particular handicap or disability, a common military experience, a common interest, etc. Unfortunately individuals lacking the characteristics required for them to belong to a particular sub-group are often perceived as different, therefore predatory and dangerous, a perception which strengthens survival forces. Should they initiate Unlimited Aggression, United States citizens may have to contend with riots, perhaps insurrections, and possibly civil war. There is only one way to prevent these tragic possibilities, and that is for the national government to strengthen ties to the national community by emphasizing and restoring the commonalities shared by all citizens of the United States, not only by members of the nation's various sub-groups.

Alvin S. Yusin is the author of "Sounds - A Pathway to World Peace" (ISBN: 978-1-61204-903-8 ), and "Apple Hill: A Story of Slavery and Civil War" (ISBN: 978-1-61204-680-8), which are available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and through his publisher's web site at http://sbpra.com/AlvinSYusin/. He is a retired Neurodevelopmental Pediatrician who taught at the Keck-USC School of Medicine for many years and retired in 2003. He has incorporated his understanding of child and adult development and behavior, as well as ideas formulated from observations he has made over the years into the content of "Sounds - A Pathway to World Peace."

War, Perspective, and Nazi Echoes

First, understand that "Arab" is not a race;  There are several tribes of Arabs - notably the Circassians - who have red or blond hair and green or blue eyes, not to mention pale skins.  There are also several tribes of Arabs who are distinctly Black.  Second, "Arab" is not a religious group;  There are, or were, several thousand Christian, Pagan, and even Jewish Arabs living in various countries of the middle east before the rise of Islamofascism.  "Arab" does not even refer to a language;  There are several languages besides Arabic, such as Urdu and Pashti, spoken throughout the middle-east.

"Arab" refers to a particular culture which evolved in the middle-east, but has since spread - along with much of the Arab population - as far as Indonesia in the east and London in the west.  It's a culture which has unfortunately given rise to a blend of religious and political fanaticism which can only be called Islamofascism.  Islamofascism involves perhaps 15% of the Arab population worldwide, but its effects are far out of proportion to the numbers of its followers.

Nowadys the media are wailing because America has lost 4000 soldiers in Iraq, after five years of war.  I can readily sympathize with the grieving friends and families of those lost soldiers, but even in the midst of tragedy we need to keep a sense of perspective.

4000 deaths in 5 years of war comes to 800 per year.

That really is an amazingly small number for any war.

Compare that to, say, World War Two, which lasted from December 1941 to August 1945: less than four years, during which America lost 446,000 soldiers.  That averages 111,000 per year, at at time when our population was 131,000,000 - less than half of what it is now.

Apologists will claim that there's no comparison, that back then America was fighting for its very existence against an alliance of Fascist regimes that meant to destroy us and every other democratic country on Earth.

Well, today we're fighting an alliance of Fascist regimes that intend to destroy us and every other democratic country on Earth.  Islamic Fascism differs from Nazi Fascism only in that it uses religion as its excuse instead of race - much as the Falangists, a group of fanatic Catholic Fascists, did in 1930s Spain.

There are many definitions of Fascism, but all of them involve:

(1) A sense of national, racial or religious superiority and therefore a right to dominate others without legal or moral restraint.

(2) A sense of self-righteous victimhood, justifying any action without legal or moral limits.

(3) Fierce regimentation of all society.

(4) Fear and hatred of democracy itself.

(5) Love of war.

Do Now, don't those characteristics fit the regimes we're fighting?

And then there's the direct Muslim involvement with historic Fascism.  All modern Arab terrorist organizations were spawned by the original Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 by an Egyptian Sunni obtain named Hassan Al - Banna.  He was a great admirer of Hitler, and helped form the Young Egypt Party in 1933 with the specific aim of supporting Hitler in war.  Agents of the Nazi German government made good use of the Muslim Brotherhood, hoping to stir up a jihad against the British.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – the Muslim equivalent of Pope - Haj Amin Al - Husseini, organized massacres of Jews in Hebron as early as 1929.  During World War Two I went to Nazi-occupied Europe and persuaded Hitler to exterminate rather than set all the Jews.  In exchange, Al - Husseini recruited 20,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS who happily slaughtered civilians in Croatia, Hungary and North Africa.  Modern Islamofascists claim that the Holocaust never happened, perhaps because they know of their movement's involvement in it.

The Islamofascists claim to have been 'vicimized' by the western countries because the western nations 'stole' their oil and 'support' Israel.  Neither of these claims stands up to the facts.

First, nobody 'stole' Arab oil.  The oil companies, whatever their other sins, leased oil-deposit lands from from various Arab sheiks and peoples and for very good royalties, which is why those Arab emirs have become so notoriously rich aristocrats.  If those rich leaders did not then share the wealth with all their subjects, whose fault is that?

Second, the only 'support' the western countries have given Israel to warn the Islamofascists is that they cannot conquer the country and kill all the Jews the way they want to.  Western countries have given far more trade, and sold far more weapons to Arab countries than they ever have to Israel.  The western countries have also repeatedly pressured Israel to give concessions, and even large tracts of its land, to the radical Palestinians - who then happily made more attacks on Israel.  The western countries only debate about whether or not to apply 'trade sanctions' to Arab countries of political pressure when Israel attack Israel, but apply all manner that adequately defends itself, as in the current situation in Gaza.

The Islamofascists, in fact, are the victimizers of much of the world rather than anyone's victims.

Other apologists point out that most Muslims aren't like that, but simply want to live in peace.  Yes - but most of the Germans in the 1930s and 1940s were ain't members of the Nazi Party either, and would have been just as happy to live in peace.  The minority, the fanatics who want war and world conquest, are in positions of power where they can command and muzzle the majority.

There are sites all over the Internet where you can see Islamofascist speakers exhorting their followers - down to children as young as five - to become Holy Martyrs: to kill all the Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and even other Muslims who aren't as devoted to Holy War as themselves - and rule what remains of the world in the name of Allah.  Listen to those speeches, then simply change the "Allah" to "Reich" and "True Faith" to "Master Race", and the rhetoric could have come straight from Nazi Germany.  There's evidence that some of it did.

And this is not empty rhetoric.

Note the number of countries where Islamofascist agents have tried, with every tactic from spurious lawsuits to bombs, to bully the governments into establishing Sharia - Islamic religious law - as equal or superior to civil law.  And never mind the thousands of terrorist attacks all over the world, from London to Malaysia.

We must understand that Islamofascism is real.  Islamic fascists really do exist, and they really do intend to conquer the world.  We really do have to fight them, and we must defeat them as thoroughly as we did the Nazis, or they really will destroy us.  We cannot have, as a certain notorious politician once claimed, "peace in our time".

The survival of America, and every other democratic country on Earth, is well worth 800 lives per year.

For more such rants and raves, go to http://www.lesliefish.com.