Yvonne from Park Slope

Looking at our own country first, we in the USA have surrendered control to a minority for whom war serves positive functions ... for them. Our economy requires a certain level of unemployment which would be significantly higher without our military misadventures.

As long as our own wars provide profits for some and employment where employment would not otherwise be easily available and as long as the wars of others are, also, a source of profit for some and as long as men are running the show and there is all the cowboy mentality of a teenage boy (the ones who are about to serve and die for war) and this cowboy mentality is confused with patriotism and as long as so many in this country are misinformed and this ignorance is deliberately manipulated by politicians who do the bidding of others who profit from war, this country will always be at war.

The inevitability of war may be somewhat different in different cultures and countries. Here in the USA, there is too much invested in it's perpetuation.

Peaceful cultures have existed and so it could not be universal and inherent in all human beings. If it is possible even for a small culture to be peaceful, then it should be possible for all. We need to better understand what has made peacefulness possible where it has existed!!

If there was already no wars now, what would our unemployment rate look like?? How much worse would it be. Is politics of this country willing and able to address this??

I was struck by someone in a previous show who called our wars "welfare conservative style" and I am pessimistic about the readiness of the American culture to honestly face the forces that perpetuate war here including the corporations who feed off these wars.