There has been a gradual but clear increase in news and events that remind us of War. Recent examples include the unification of China, Russia, and North Korea, as well as India looking for alliances not involving the United States. The image of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un together at Tiananmen Square was a masterclass in political theatre, a chilling and unambiguous declaration for many in the West of a new anti-Western axis. US President Donald Trump has accused his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, of conspiring against the US with the leaders of Russia and North Korea. Trump’s comments came as China hosted world leaders at its largest-ever Victory Day parade in Beijing on Wednesday – a showcase of China’s military might.

In other news, after months of campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, President Donald Trump sent a sharply different message on Friday when he signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War. Trump said the switch was intended to signal to the world that the United States was a force to be reckoned with. In his ongoing struggle of threats and power, Trump also wrote in a post: “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”  The leaders of the world, including our president, talk in war terms as casual comments. But those of us old enough to remember WW II know the reality of all-out conflict, and those who lived through the subsequent conflicts involving this country do so as well.

This subject is not a casual comment. World War Two General Omar Bradley once said, “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” Worse. We are not dealing with bullets fired from guns; we are dealing with drones flown from distant locations and unstable groups having nuclear power.  Carl Sagan said, “ The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

President Dwight D Eisenhower said, ” Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every Rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hope of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ”

The increasing “saber-rattling” through shows and threats of military power, when used by nations, can easily turn from aggressive blustering to war between nations.