Bowden in this article discusses the military essential concept to understanding the military's role in establishing peace where there is conflict and destruction of life and property: it is to get the disputants to lay down their arms and start talking towards realizing a utopia--you said it--towards making peace. That movement towards reconciliation and ending hostilities is in military terms, an ethios. Through the display of military values of peace in time of war, factions can become embued with the cause of peace, making war less desirable and less likely to bring about what they want from war.
The military recognize the values they must carry with them whether or not in war is the embodiment of the pursuit of peace. Virtually apolitical, they want people to live together in harmony with one another, in peace. President Trump says the United States has been pursuing through its State Department a perpetual display of our military might throughout the world, fanning the flames of a worldwide conflagration through endless wars.
To my mind, US foreign policy has been evolving certainly since the end of World War II, such that its leaders, including the military, have come to realize they all must have in mind the same ends-in-view even before going to war. That means, the military should be involved before preparing to go to war in knowing what the war's end would bring about: the goal or end-in-view war should achieve. Putting in the hands of political live-wires what a war would accomplish is a sign that the war is already being conceived by those with clouded judgment. Good judgment is to freely own up to the world condition that war itself would destructively wraught upon humanity. The wisdom of seasoned generals must be brought into the planning for war and knowing what a desired peace at its termination would bring about.
How to emphasize the military ethios among those who would bring about peace? Trump simply uttered, "I am living up to my campaign promise: I'll bring back our troops from foreign areas of conflict we have no interest in pursuing a peace for. We have no vision of a lasting peace for that region.
In Syria, he is attempting to bring about a peace in which the peaceful state satisfies the political and regional ambitions of the Russians, the Turks, possibly some Kurds, but in no way brings about a world of greater peace where communal living together among those who were in combat has been achieved.
The United States Military has bases and installations in over 190 countries, and by their presence are able to encourage peace and cooperation among the many peoples with their own cultures and backgrounds. Promoting peace by suggesting how hostile parties can sit down and reason together towards peace--material prosperity and long-life--is a role the US military can and should do, for there is no organization dedicated toward peace and the absence of war yet armed with its armor to establish governmental order and stability wherever needed as our military in the service of our people. To be sure, the US as a significant promoter of business and trade accepts its responsibilities to promote peace with a view to expand trade worldwide and thereby foster the financial well-being of its citizenry.
For there can be no certain trade and commerce in regions of the globe where peace does not exist.
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