Sunday, March 12, 2006

War: Some Good News and Not So Good News
The Iraq war continues to dominate the news to the extent that we don't get a larger view of war. But there is a Knight Ritter report that says "Wars Are On The Wane Worldwide". In this column there is some good news. For example, "Two-thirds of U.N. peacekeeping efforts succeed." But here is some not so good news: "If war is falling out of fashion, Americans may be among the last to notice it. The United States has fought 16 armed conflicts since 1946. Only the United Kingdom, with 21, and France, with 19, have fought more, according to the University of British Columbia's 2005 Human Security Report, which analyzes trends in political violence worldwide."
But the story points out that there is a trend toward using other means to resolve conflict among nations rather than war.