Defence industry protesters are wrong

Defence industry protestors are wrong on two counts, One being the way they protested and the second is that we still need weapons, According to newspaper reports, police officers were pelted with horse poo, rocks, eggs and rotten tomatoes.Their horses were also punched. Traffic was disrupted and attendees abused.

The daughter of a good friend was also arrested. Her time would be better spent following some of the suggestions below.

Until we stop war, we do need to defend ourselves. There are too many incidents of potential conflict involving Australia. This opinion writer has written a book Ending War in which he analyses the causes behind war and offers suggestions by which we can end war – the cause behind the countless millions of deaths and untold suffering over the centuries. Those suggestions include ending the international manufacture and selling of armaments and strengthening the capability and willingness of the United Nations to fulfill its charter. – to bring about peace. Article 1 states

The Purposes of the United Nations are:

To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,

The book lists a continuum of failed peace keeping efforts by the United Nations, The answers to these failures appear to be an ending to the veto power of the big five, and establishing a competent UN policing force . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked a few weeks into the Russian involvement:

What is the point of the UN if it can't act against crimes against humanity and punish the perpetrators?

The Ending War book attempted to ascertain the causes behind all wars over the history of humanity. All told, this writer identified almost 157 wars, which is not all wars, but a sufficient number to give us a reliable answer to the question on the cause of war. The frequency of war is one every 22 years. This frequency does not seem to be a great a problem but remember that we have defined a war as a series of battles. These usually were spread over several years. Some wars lasted up to a hundred years.

The earliest war is evidenced in the Jebel Sahaba collection, a group of skeletons from Sudan about 13,000 years ago, and now in the British Museum. These skeletons have numerous cut marks from weapons as well as stone arrowheads embedded in the bones. These injuries occurred over a lengthy period of time. However, we have no recorded history of this war, and so do not know the causes.

Six classifications methods were used to define the causes of all wars. In every case, almost without exception, where the instigator of the war and his followers, sought to gain territory, it was seen as an attempt to gain control over the resources of that area, and its people, and has been labelled as Power. The five of the six classifications are:

1. Power: wars fought to gain territory &/or power.

2. Religion/power: wars of religion (although the crusades are uncertain).

3. Civil war: a war within one country, although those that are clearly fought to gain power have been labelled as such

4. Justified: wars for freedom

5. Justified/Power: wars to rid the country of a conqueror are so labelled as the original cause was a conquest for power.

6. ????: unsure of reason

The results were

Power: 94 causes of war

Religion: 1 cause of war

Religion/Power: 14 causes of war

Civil War: 5 causes of war

Justified: 18 causes of war

Justified/Power: 5 causes

The findings confirm that most wars were started by leaders wanting more power. An interesting and inexplicable aspect of this finding is that these wars have, in the main, been supported by the people of the country starting the war. This issue raises several questions, the main one of which is why. Why do people support wars in which their country is clearly in the wrong? Why do they support the voices of authority in their country?

Examples are seen in the many dictators over history

• Adolf Hitler, although he was elected legitimately, was ultimately responsible for the deaths of an estimated 19 million people
• Joseph Stalin was the most famous leader of Russia during the 20th century. His first grab at power began after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924.
• Mao Zedong
• Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-1979) Throughout the country, mass graves known as the Killing Fields were created. By 1979, it is estimated that around two million people had perished under Pol Pot's rule.
• Kim Il-sung (North Korea, 1948-1994)
• Saddam Hussein (Iraq, 1979-2003)
• Idi Amin (Uganda, 1971-1979)

All of them have caused wars, the deaths and untold suffering of many people, and have been supported by their acolytes and henchmen.

One final frustration with those trying to prevent wars is the Sydney Peace Foundation. I sent them the book asking them for support; that they would contact their readers, suggesting Australian should initiate action to strengthen the United Nations.

After all, an Australian politician was the first President of the UN. "Doc" Evatt, Minister for External Affairs in the Curtin and Chifley governments, was adamant that the new organisation should have more input from smaller countries.

Evatt succeeded in enlarging the scope of the UN's main body, the General Assembly, of which he was president from 1948 to 1949.

I need to find another Australian politician to help stop war. Perhaps Zali Steggall, an Olympic medallist. After all she proved more acceptable to the Australian public than a sitting Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, famously called a misogynist by former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Voters disagreed with his proposed changes to university fees and Medicare. His decision to award an Australian knighthood to the Duke of Edinburgh in January 2015 was also met with derision.

My request to Steggall will be to propose, through Australia's representative in the United Nations, to initiate a program of reform for the United Nations, primarily to strengthen its peace keeping operations.