The criminal terrorist events of Nov. 13 in France have once again challenged many of the world’s nations to consider significantly expanding a war effort to degrade and destroy Jihadi personages, who believe in the thoughts and actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who are trying to establish a Caliphate state.
Knowledge and understanding can be effective weapons when seeking to transition from warring and conflict to reconciliation and peace.
If you want to become knowledgeable about the current situation in the Middle East and ISIS politics, read the latest book by a prominent Canadian author Gwynne Dyer titled Don’t Panic: ISIS Terror and Today’s Middle East.
If you want to gain knowledge about the role Canada has played in various wars in the past and current centuries read Canada in the Great Power Game 1914 – 2014, also by Dyer. If you want to be knowledgeable concerning the attempt by the United Nations to eliminate wars, read the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ask yourself if what was proposed in this Charter is being implemented by the Nations of the organization. If you are a committed bookworm, read Canadian author Noah Richler’s What We Talk About When We Talk About War (2012). Check out the last chapter and his ideas for a Canadian Forces Peace Operations Regiment elite unit.
War is caused by conflicting political ideas. You can kill the enemy but can you kill the idea? ISIS and Jihadism are ideas. The effective way forward is to understand the enemy’s ideas then challenge these ideas with determined rational solutions. A Canadian idea of merit is to create an elite Canadian Forces Peace Operations Regiment. Thinking globally, why not encourage the United Nations to create a United Nations Peace Operations Military Organization to enforce the United Nations Universal Declarations of Human Rights?
Greg Lay, Kaslo
