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War and Peace: I am Fighting for Peace

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 War and Peace: I am Fighting for Peace
Review: Brad Delong’s Post ‘On Wars’ in Grasping Reality

by

Dawood Mamoon

Dated: 19nth February 2024

My favorite Professor Brad Delong is at it again. This time he chose war and peace as
his topic while he briefly reviewed Michael Mann’s book titled ‘On Wars’. He agrees
War is a mistake. Yes for every civilized person, he, she or he/she, we all should hate
wars in 21st century. Yes it is costing us our comfort, our peace of mind, our partying
till dawn. Yes millions have come out in the Western World to protest against war in
Gaza. Yes, they even came out against war in Iraq more than a decade ago. We all
have read about wars. Human history is full of wars and conflicts. Most of the human
history, war has been glorified and that is nearly in all of our history books. Yes allied
forces were rightly glorified to have fought against the Nazi Germany and eventually
bring an end to Holocaust. But war is a comprehensive word as what Brad Delong
clearly tells his readers in his blog post that you can read below. War always involve
at least two parties as so nicely put by Professor Delong. Therefore here war as a
concept is being discussed. Why would people, nations and countries go to war. Yes
war may have been initiated by one party, but why would it always end up in a war
and not peace. As professor Delong suggests if aggressor would impose war, there is
always a possibility for agressee to not respond. Yes, this aspect should have been
settled for the Christian world. Jesus Christ had let the Romans put him on
calcification. He didn't turn his followers into the army of resistance. He happily died
and in other words one man who has changed modern history for mankind would
dedicate his life to undertake acts of kindness and compassion to the people of his
tribe and would be crucified for his kindness only because he would say that he is a
prophet foretold by his mother Mary. Yes there was no war that happened when
world’s most revered prophet gave his life at the altar for his kind words to the
powerful Roman Army. It is now known as crucifixion and not war. Jesus Christ and
his mother Virgin Mary live for ever, whereas within few hundred years, the whole
Roman empire became the followers of Jesus Christ. Well, this is a very powerful act
by one man who chose the way of peace. And if that is so, why still nations and tribes
would go to war. Maybe because they are looking for a Jesus Christ and may be if
they find one, the Waring tribes would choose peace so that someone like him, he or a
she can live to continue his or her bloodline so that most precious values of human
genome that are kindness, compassion, love, ethics and peace can blossom from the
shadows of that man or/and a woman to create a world where humanity finally gets to
witness ever lasting peace. Well its been 2000 years since the crucifixion of Jesus,
and he is one of his kind while we also know when dark ages were upon Christian
world, they were still in war with each other and as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Therefore either the story of Jesus is out of place in human history and that is
understood by modern and secular world to be so or whole of human history that is
full of wars is out of place. So it becomes a very fundamental exercise to try to
understand the word war and what it really means. However ‘On Wars’ is about our
conventional understanding of wars that bring destruction and mayhem to the people
and material where war takes place. But first kindly read Professor Delong’s blog
post and then my review as concluding text to this article.

‘’This is: Grasping Reality—The SubStack, by Brad DeLong. Today’s does have some
Director’s Cut, paid-subscriber only content at its end. Switch to paid to see it:

On Michael Mann's "On Wars"

Reviewing a book whose strengths—all of its arresting & insightful individual stories
—do not really allow for fruitful summarization & lesson-drawing…

BRAD DELONG
FEB 19, 2024
∙
From my economist’s point of view, every single war is first and foremost a mistake.

Wars are negative-sum. Someone—possibly two someones—must have miscalculated

the likely outcome in order for a war to even begin, and not halted at or before the
last minute by some agreement that is, relative to the costs and hazards of war,
unambiguously a win-win bargain better in expectation for both sides than the wager
of the battlefield could possibly be. The aggressor should not have attacked. It
should, rather, have stayed at home, cultivated its own vine and fig tree, and rested
beneath them. Or, given that the aggressor was on the move, the aggressee should
have struck the best bargain it could and submitted. Or perhaps both are true. But it
cannot be the case, given the negative-sum nature of the activity, that neither is true.

So why do wars happen? And what, considered as a human social practice that
probably excels all other human social practices in its sheer stupidity, is war?

Michael Mann’s 2023 On Wars

<https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300266818/on-wars/> is profoundly thought-
provoking—but not comprehensive. With such a subject, how could it be
comprehensive? It is an attempt to explore the history and nature of war as an
ideological, economic, political, emotional, and strictly military—whatever that
could possibly be—human social practice. It tries to come to general conclusions
about the underlying causes of conflicts, and thus about the potential for better
achieving peace.

It fails. Much better at accomplishing the stated aims of the book, in my opinion, is
Chris Blattman’s 2022 Why We Fight <https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/
636263/why-we-fight-by-christopher-blattman/>. Blattman’s five-item list of the
types of mistakes that lead to wars—Unchecked Interest, Intangible Incentives,
Uncertainty, Commitment Problems, and Misperceptions—is the foundation for a
useful sociology of war in order to guide human action toward the preservation of
peace. But Mann’s book is tremendously worth reading even so. For Blattman tells us
very little about what war actually is. Mann, by contrast, gives us rich story after
rich story, example after example.

And even though his attempts to sort them into a set of conceptual boxes—boxes from
which sociological generalizations can be drawn—????largely fail, what stories!’
(BRAD DELONG, GRASPING REALITY, 2024)

Well, I would start from sociological generalization to understand war. To put it most
simply, war is every and any act of control and peace is about giving. Yes as a person,
if I am sitting on a throne, how would I control things around me. Well fighting
gravity to move around my personal space is not war. Neither it is war to govern the
country. In the modern world human rights and most modern methods of governance
and leadership defines the actions of a kind king rather than by any act of war. Yes,
there is a possibility that war may be justified on people who don't adhere to the
values of the civilized world. Yes ‘War on Terror’ by United States of America was
waged based on ideals of free, modern and democratic world. Even cold war was a
war of ideas where one part of the world was modern and democratic while the other
super power namely USSR was a communist regime. It becomes all the more
interesting to carry forward the argument by Professor Delong, where he asks when
war can really be justified and his assessment is one may never be able to justify war.
Modern world is predominantly Christian with Christian values and there should have
been all the more probability that Modern World, the Capitalist World and the
Democratic World would not choose to go to war or proxy war against USSR. The
Americans who detested the Vietnam war became hero’s of American history. It is
also now widely accepted that Iraq war was wrong. Even war waged on Afghanistan
was wrong as it was never won and nether democracy was brought to Afghanistan.
Currently there is the government of Taliban there. Yes, in this perspective Biden by
not sending boots on Ukranian grounds is a good gesture of peace. But still Ukraine
is thousands of miles away from United States. And it is Russia who has waged war
on Ukraine. So basically helping Ukraine defend itself is not an act of war but a
gesture of peace. But why would Russia really want to go to war with Ukraine. There
are thousands of arguments that include aspects of international diplomacy like
Ukraine becoming a closer ally to Europe than Russia or War as means to divert the
attention of local population in Russia by President Putin. Whatever it is is, it seems
who ever is the aggressor, it would like to retain control on even matters that may not
really be controlled for many diversified reasons. Loosing your grip on international
governance, international economy, regional economy or local economy may give the
pretext to the aggressor for going to war on foreign lands. Whereas peace is all about
giving. Giving material, intellectual and technical assistance are all great acts and
gestures of peace. So interestingly one may ask whether giving yourself, your social
and ethnic identity, your freedom as how Professor Delong hints would avert war. It
has done in case of Jesus Christ. So why not the whole world is adherent to Jesus
Christ and thereby a peaceful place. It seems there was something different about
Jesus Christ and his adherents when compared to the entire world and the Universe
that we are familiar with. Of course the difference was Jesus Christ is the Son of God
as told by Virgin Marry to her tribe. In this scientific world, NASA can put Christian
names to its space flight missions and would always collaborate with Russians even
in times when America is at War with Russia, but for the most significant part of the
world and about economic, political and social affairs of the world, war is still more
relevant than peace. Why so?

And there is even more interesting twist to the act of War and Peace. The
conventional wars are fought by the armies. Soldiers much like Jesus Christ would
give their lives for certain pre defined ideals while fighting for their country. And the
story of Jesus Christ tells the world that giving life for a just cause is the most
powerful act of peace and bravery. While soldiers would give their lives for peace,
once it is delivered in negotiations as wars would always lead to peace talks, the very
ideals may as well be found to adjust to the direction that negotiations would follow
and may be in shere contrast to the ideals that resulted in boots on ground. Well, I
would end my article by high lighting this contrast in outcomes.

Giving love, giving kindness, giving a kind smile and well even giving your life is an
act only a soldier understands it more importantly because he and/or she really knows
the worth of life and the worth of a just cause to give their life for. And if there is no
fighting army, then there would be no war though there still would be conflict.
Therefore, ‘a Just War’ is more important than understanding evidence ‘On Wars’.
And to wage a just war, there is no one who is greater than Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH). A Just War is a war against tyranny. War against Nazi Germany was a Just
War. War in Gaza is not a just war. And this means that there is no end to a Just war
where a soldier is ready to give his and/or her life for peace. My readers must have
guessed that I may as well need to write a book to justify the depth in my arguments.

Self control to prolong life is a just fight. Giving life to save many lives is a just fight.
Therefore war is not that much different from peace. Yes, in a just war, may be and
ideally no one should die and/or get injured. A Just war is when a soldier doesn't have
to give his/her life for peace. Yes it seems for that, humanity has to turn the whole
world into a perpetual heaven of happiness and tranquility and economic marvel and
prosperity.

Do You Believe in Jesus Christ my Friend and Teacher Professor Brad Delong?
 The song most beautifully explaining what I have written is from my favorite music
band ‘TAKE THAT’. You must watch it on following You Tube Link.

Take That - The Flood (Official Video) (youtube.com)

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