Will she sleep?

I chose the title of this piece from a line of the song Blowing in the Wind. The second line of the song is "Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?" The dove, of course, represents "Peace." Unfortunately, she is still sailing, and it looks like it will be a long time before she will sleep in the sand.

My wife and I are now on a trip to Maryland, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania. We had an interesting day today. We began the day by visiting Fort Necessity in Farmington, PA. The battle there took place in the summer of 1754. George Washington headed up part of a regiment of British soldiers who were building a road to the west. They had reached a place called Great Meadows in Western Pennsylvania. Word came that a small group of French soldiers were nearby. He led an expedition to find them and a massacre ensued. The French officer was killed in the battle.

Washington knew there would be retaliation at Great Meadows he built a temporary fortress and named it "Fort Necessity" for obvious reasons. The French did retaliate and a bitter battle ensued. Little did Washington know that this battle would become the opening skirmish in the French and Indian War. That six-year war would ultimately develop into a world war between the British and the French to establish a worldwide empire. The British eventually won that war, and the British Empire was established.

Over the next 200 years, the British Empire declined and the upstart colonists from America, who declared their independence from the British in 1776, eventually established their own empire. The American empire now controls much of our planet, both militarily and economically.

That leads me to the second place we visited today. We drove northeast from Fort Necessity to Shanksville and spent some time at the temporary memorial to Flight 93 that crashed on 9/11. This was the opening skirmish in what is now a six-year "War against Terrorism." The burning question is: Will this also become a World War to establish empire, or has it already become a world war? Who will eventually win the day? Will it be the American empire, or will it be the Jihadists?

I am personally convinced that there is no military solution to this conflict. We must find a solution by other means. To remove the things that cause the rage in extremists, we must abandon the establishment of empire and work towards the establishment of cooperation and world community. "Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"