Hate the Messenger, but Heed the Message.

Wiser minds have said this from the start:

It doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement.  If they don’t do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage.  This is a war that never should have happened, but it did. The solution can never be as good as it would have been before the shooting started, but there is a solution, and it should be figured out now—not later...

It's easy to whoop and cheer and holler, "De-fense!  De-fense! De-fense!" from afar.  It's natural to be angered at the sight of dead civilians and outraged at the attacks that have killed so many, and destroyed so much of life as they knew it in a peaceful civilization.

But, doubling down, wanting to avenge those already dead by ramping up the war with an endless supply of weaponry to be tested and used in another country -- while we here at home look away and go about our business in peacetime -- only adds to the deadly costs already incurred.  

Destruction takes minutes.  Rebuilding takes years.  Revenge is costly.  Ongoing wars eventually become a case of simply throwing in good after bad because you are acting irrationally out of anger.  How many people worldwide will suffer because of the destruction in Ukraine -- the lack of harvest, the heating situation, etc?  How many more lives will be lost before we decide there's a better way to pursue peace and work, even compromise, so that the military destruction ends?

At least, the NATO countries are pledging more now in their own defensive needs, and countries like Germany are finally accepting they need to wean themselves off of Russian oil, right?  If only they would have taken those steps years ago, and better minds had persuaded both Russian and Ukrainian leaders that they both would end up big losers serving as proxy for this latest world war.   Pity the Ukrainians, but don't make promises that can't be kept, at the costs of their lives and their country?

The last thing we needed right now was yet another war, but as Eisenhower warned back on Jan. 17, 1961, it you build it, and make it profitable, they will come to destroy, and keep coming, until wiser minds prevail...

On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.

Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general, the man who led the allies on D-Day, made the remarks in his farewell speech from the White House.

As NPR's Tom Bowman tells Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne, Eisenhower used the speech to warn about "the immense military establishment" that had joined with "a large arms industry."

Here's an excerpt:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."

Since then, the phrase has become a rallying cry for opponents of military expansion.

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Eisenhower gave the address after completing two terms in office; it was just days before the new president, John F. Kennedy, would be sworn in.

Eisenhower was worried about the costs of an arms race with the Soviet Union, and the resources it would take from other areas -- such as building hospitals and schools.

Bowman says that in the speech, Eisenhower also spoke as someone who had seen the horror and lingering sadness of war, saying that "we must learn how to compose differences not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose."

Look at what these wars beget, years later here at home...

And you find that what was over there is over here...

Listen Without Prejudice, ~George Michael

Maybe we should all be praying for time?