BLESSED
ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Peacemakers will be individual persons who live
everywhere on the planet Earth
who maintain peace, prevent genocide, & serve
the people.
This is a utopian goal.
But, where there is no vision, the people perish.
What do you think
about the following vision of a planet without war?
1.
PEACEMAKERS WILL OPERATE IN A DISARMED WORLD.
2.
PEACEMAKERS WILL BE STATIONED IN EVERY COUNTRY.
3.
PEACEMAKERS WILL WEAR UNIFORMS AND CARRY GUNS.
4.
PEACEMAKERS WILL WATCH FOR GENOCIDAL TENDENCIES.
5.
PEACEMAKERS WILL IMPRISON ANYONE WHO VIOLATES THE PEACE.
6.
PEACEMAKERS WILL WORK INDIVIDUALLY RATHER THAN UNDER ORDERS.
7.
PEACEMAKERS WILL GIVE AID WHEN NATURAL DISASTERS STRIKE.
8.
PEACEMAKERS WILL BE MORE HONORED THAN NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
9.
PEACEMAKERS WILL BE SUPPORTED BY PEACE-LOVING PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
BLESSED
ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
by James Park
1. PEACEMAKERS WILL OPERATE IN A
DISARMED WORLD.
When peacemakers finally come into their own,
it will be in a world without national military forces.
This will be achieved over a period of 100 years.
When the peacemakers have proven that they can enforce world law,
all the nations of the Earth will agree
that there is no further need for national military forces.
And the last nations to keep separate military forces
might probably have to be disarmed by force.
Because national military forces will be banned,
it should be possible for just one million peacemakers
to keep the peace everywhere.
Historically, national military forces have been necessary to pursue
war.
When there are no more armies, navies, or air forces
under the control of national leaders,
war as the planet Earth has known it will be impossible.
2. PEACEMAKERS WILL BE STATIONED
IN EVERY COUNTRY.
Just as the United States of American
now maintains
hundreds of military bases all over the world,
the peacemakers will have settled locations in every nation.
Some of these might be former military bases,
previously used by the military forces
either of that nation or of some foreign country
that used to keep national military forces beyond its
own borders.
Small nations will have only a few peacemakers
living within them.
Large nations will have peacemakers dispersed among their diverse
populations.
The peace-loving populations of every country will
cooperate with the peacemakers.
Free communication between the peacemakers and the populations
will be facilitated by the fact that
the peacemakers will always speak the languages of the people.
However, in order to avoid even the appearance of
nationalism
among the peacemakers, they will
not police their own countries.
Peacemakers will be citizens of the countries from which they come,
but during their years of service to the peace of the world,
they will always serve in countries other than their own.
For example, the easiest language requirement will
be for English-speakers:
The United States will have peacemakers from other English-speaking
countries:
Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
And each of these countries will have resident peacemakers
who speak English but who are not
citizens of the the countries where
they serve.
This feature of the peacemakers will be more
difficult to fulfill for small countries,
where the natives are the only speakers of their language.
In such cases, peacemakers from other countries
will have to learn the local languages before they begin to serve
there.
In some cases, where there is only a small number of native-speakers,
most people will also use another language
—whatever
language they use in international commerce.
This language will also be used by the peacemakers.
Peacemakers might maintain ties to their countries
of origin.
For example, they will have family members somewhere in the world.
And for periods of vacation from their service as peacemakers,
they can return to their countries of origin.
For such travel, they will
be required to have passports.
And when they retire from their role as peacemakers,
they will probably return to their countries of origin.
But during all of the years of their active service,
they will serve in nations other than their own.
3. PEACEMAKERS WILL WEAR UNIFORMS
AND CARRY GUNS.
In order to be recognized everywhere they go,
peacemakers will have uniforms that are recognized by everyone.
They will live among all of the peoples of the world,
moving freely across national borders without hindrance.
They will need no passports while they are in uniform.
The guns they carry are intended only to enforce
well-established world law,
not the laws of any locality, state, or nation.
Local, state, & national laws will be enforced
by appropriate local, state, & national law-enforcement officers.
Peacemakers will not take sides in civil wars.
It will not be the role of the peacemakers to decide which group of
armed men wins.
Rather, the peacemakers will disarm all individuals and groups.
They will enforce world law as it might apply to situations of
civil war
—for
example, when civil war is a form of genocide or mutual genocide.
This might mean that peacemakers will fight against both sides in a conflict
in order to establish peace
so that the various factions will reach a political settlement.
When all armed groups are disarmed,
the people of any nation will be forced to think of non-violent methods
for creating whatever law-and-order will emerge from the former chaos.
Peacemakers will not possess weapons of mass death,
since they will never kill many people with one decision.
The peace of the world will be disrupted by individuals.
Whenever possible, such violators of the peace
will be captured and imprisoned.
But when capture is not possible,
the peacemakers will have the power to kill those who violate
world law.
The most obvious reason for killing anyone
will be that they are using weapons of war.
4. PEACEMAKERS WILL WATCH FOR
GENOCIDAL TENDENCIES.
Because all of the peacemakers will already be
living in the nations they police,
they will be well-placed to notice the development of genocidal
thinking.
And the people of each nation will communicate freely with the
peacemakers.
When law-and-order does break down because of the
death of a national leader,
the peacemakers will already be there to prevent the people from
killing one another.
And where they can foresee such genocide,
the peacemakers will increase their presence to larger numbers
and bring the appropriate weapons
to prevent different ethnic groups from slaughtering one another.
However, the peacemakers of the world
will not interfere with the political process in any nation.
It is not their job to enforce democracy, monarchy, or any other forms
of government.
Each nation will have its own means of organizing government functions.
The peacemakers will be present to keep the people from killing one
another
in any form of genocide, organized or unorganized.
Each nation will decide its own form of government
after the elimination of national military forces.
The peacemakers will not interfere in any political process,
except to prevent and/or combat genocide.
Because the peacemakers will be operating in a
post-military world,
there will be no more military dictators anywhere in the world.
People who would previously have kept themselves in power
by using their military forces will have to find other means
to become leaders and to continue to govern their nations.
When genocidal dangers increase anywhere in the
world,
the peacemakers will increase their presence there.
This will allow all who might otherwise commit genocide
to know that they will be captured and imprisoned
or they themselves will be killed
if and when they start to kill others.
Where national governments collapse for whatever
reasons,
the peacemakers will not attempt to create new governments for those
nations.
The people of each nation-state will have to create their own new
governments.
And even for a period of years, it might be necessary for the
peacemakers
to patrol the failed nation-state until a new political order emerges.
But the new order will not be based on military force.
The people will have to talk
with their adversaries rather than shoot
them.
Peace will prevail while they sort out their own destiny.
5.
PEACEMAKERS WILL IMPRISON ANYONE WHO VIOLATES THE PEACE.
Especially during the period of transition,
when there will still be lots of people bearing arms,
it will be necessary for the peacemakers to maintain a system of
prisons,
where violators of world law can be kept
for as long as they are dangerous to the peace of the world.
In some cases, military leaders in prison will lose
all of their power
once their armies have been disbanded.
They can be returned to their homelands
as long as they will not attempt to re-establish their armies.
In effect, they will be on parole for the rest of their lives:
If they make any moves in the direction of re-arming,
the peacemakers will put them back into prison.
6. PEACEMAKERS WILL WORK
INDIVIDUALLY RATHER THAN UNDER ORDERS.
Even tho there will be one million peacemakers in
the world,
they will not operate as a military force,
which traditionally has been controlled by a central command.
There will be good coordination among all peacemakers,
so that they can work together when necessary,
but they will not be directed by a hierarchy that decides what they do.
Rather, peacemakers will be more like local police
officers:
They know what the world law is and they enforce it wherever they find
violations,
without being given specific orders from above.
7. PEACEMAKERS WILL GIVE AID WHEN
NATURAL DISASTERS STRIKE.
Peacemakers will be employed full-time to maintain
the peace.
But when the Earth becomes such a peaceful place to live
that there is very little need for active peacemaking,
the peacemakers will be ready and equipped
to help people anywhere whenever natural disaster strikes.
Because they do not need passports when on duty and
in uniform,
they do not need to ask
permission to cross national boundaries
in order to help people in need.
There will be peacemakers already living in the country
where hurricane, flood, or earthquake happens,
so they will go to work immediately,
probably in deep cooperation with everyone around them
who survived the disaster.
Equipment and supplies will already be stockpiled
and available to the peacemakers when disaster strikes,
even in countries that have few national resources immediately at hand.
And the peacemakers living in nearby nations
will immediately begin their relief efforts,
without having to consult any national leaders.
8. PEACEMAKERS WILL BE MORE HONORED
THAN NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
Because peacemakers serve the cause of peace for the
whole planet,
they will be honored by all peace-loving peoples everywhere.
It is difficult now to imagine peacemakers being higher than military
heroes
because all of the history of the Earth
has been dominated by tribal groups fighting one another.
Each tribal group has honored its own dead,
who died "serving their country".
But the peacemakers will be honored for "serving the world".
Some will die in their service as peacemakers.
But most will die natural deaths after they have retired,
just as most police officers do not die in the line of duty
but from natural causes after they have retired.
A peaceful world will mean that
millions fewer people will
die each
year in wars.
And everyone who appreciates this dramatic turn in world history
will honor the peacemakers who made it possible.
After the end of national military forces,
there will be no more people employed by any nation
to defend that nation or to commit war on
foreigners.
The warriors of previous generations can still be honored,
but when there are no new
generations of national military heroes,
the people to be honored will be the peacemakers of the world.
9. PEACEMAKERS WILL BE SUPPORTED
BY PEACE-LOVING PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
There will be several more attempts at international
peace-keeping
before peacemakers who are not under the control or any national
government
are finally able to establish and maintain peace.
All observers of the international efforts to
make
peace
based on using national military forces
will observe that national military forces
are always suspected of enforcing the national interests
of the nations from which they come.
The taxpayers of any nation will be free to support
the peacemakers.
But basically they will be supported by peace-loving individuals
who have access to money they can provide to finance peacemaking.
I hereby offer $100 to start world peacemaking.
This will be given to the first organization
that makes the first steps toward creating peacemakers.
And if during my life-time, such an organization emerges,
then I will be free to give more money.
I expect that I will eventually be joined by
millions
or even billions of other peace-loving people.
And after the end of national military forces,
for which all the peoples of the world are now paying huge amounts of
money,
we will all have much more money to support peacemaking.
In short, the money that
previously went to national military forces
will then be available to
support the peacemakers of the world.
And the total cost of peacemaking will be a small
percentage
of what the peoples of the world are now paying
to support their national military forces.
Some nations will be opposed to the peacemakers,
either temporarily because the peacemakers
are enforcing anti-genocide
laws against them
or permanently because they do not believe in world peacemakers.
So there will be no universal system of taxation
to support the professionals peacemakers.
But if they continue to do a good job,
all of the peace-loving peoples of the world who can afford it,
will continue to send them money.
The fact that they are paid by the people of the
world
will keep the peacemakers on their toes.
It will always be known what they are doing.
And they can expect to lose support from nations they are policing
vigorously.
But when a genocidal movement somewhere
requires hundreds of thousands of new peacemakers,
the other peoples of the world will pour in more money
because they will support the police actions that are controlling the
genocide.
Before peacemakers as envisioned here are
established,
there will be several other international
efforts to enforce peace.
But national governments
and national taxpayers
always have their own vested interests to enforce.
Only rarely will national governments actually pay peacemakers.
But the first efforts in this direction will show that it can work.
For example, Canada is a small nation that has been willing to tax
itself
for the purpose of providing peacekeepers for many places in the world.
Other enlightened taxpayers might decide to fund the peacemakers
instead of supporting their
previous national military forces.
I would expect even the United States to come into this camp
once the peacemakers have shown that they can do a better job
than all of the national and international forces of previous attempts.
Any individual or organization anywhere in the world
that has money will be
eligible to support the peacemakers.
This includes national governments,
who usually raise their money from taxation.
This also includes private charitable foundations,
corporations, religious organizations,
& peacemaking-support groups
created specially for the purpose of funding the peacemakers.
At first, the peacemakers will probably be
self-funded.
This means they will operate as volunteers,
supported by their own funds and their own families.
The writing of this essay is one small example of a self-funded effort.
I am not being paid for putting these words on my computer screen.
And I do not expect to ever receive any financial rewards
for the time I have devoted to the idea of peacemakers.
If I am willing to donate my time to the effort,
there will be thousands of others similarly motivated
by the desire to have a peaceful world,
even if we will never live to see that goal achieved in our own
lifetimes.
In the past, it has sometimes been the worse angels
of our nature
that have pushed us into war against other nations or groups.
But in the future, the better angels of our nature will fund
peacemaking.
Peace-loving people everywhere will support the peacemakers of the
world.
Created
August 17, 2008; Revised 10-1-2008; 11-20-2008; 12-3-2008; 5-6-2009
LINKS
TO SIMILAR THINKING:
The future we create will depend on what we imagine
now.
And the Internet will be one way
that creative imaginations from anywhere on our planet
can share their visions of a world without war.
When such similar thoughts are discovered,
they will be linked from here.
World Peace Force—Early Thinking
This
link leads to a collection of other essays by James Park
dealing with various dimensions of the proposed World Peace Force.
See related cyber-sermons by James Park:
TERRORISM, WAR,
& PEACE
Holy War
Against Terrorism
. D
Peaceful
Muslims & Violent Muslims
. D N
Deprogramming
Osama Bin Laden
. D
World
Without
War
. D
Blessed Are the
Peacemakers . D
How a
World
Peace Force
Would Handle Situations like Iraq
Better than the United States As Policeman
. D N
Exit
Strategy
for Iraq:
Arabic-Speaking Peace-Keepers . D
N
Policing
Mutual Genocide:
Not a War on
Terrorism, Not a Civil War. D N
Tribalism in Iraq.
D
Iraq after
Occupation . D
Lessons from
Iraq . D N