QOTD:Robert Locke

QOTD:Robert Locke

The core premise of the establishment is that there is a "peace process" and that if only this process could be gotten right, peace would result. Unfortunately, this is bald nonsense, and it is only believed because it enables that establishment to stage a pantomime in which it is both the audience and the hero. The myth of the peace process enables it to go to sleep every night confident that they are on the side of justice, reconciliation between peoples, international understanding, anti-terrorism, fairness, and democracy.

The fundamental problem is this: peace is not a process. Either both sides are willing to strike a deal and stop fighting, or they are not. Spewing out paper deals and nominal arrangements means nothing. In fact, it tends to make things worse, by creating confusion about the bald fact that peace is when people aren't shooting at each other, and nothing else.