A little patch of ground"We go to gain a little patch of groundThat hath in it no profit but the name."(Hamlet 4.4.18-19) For years I've been asking myself, "Why?" Why can't these warring factions compromise? I've heard at least two theories. One theory says that the leaders want to fight but the rest of people don't. Another theory says that the leaders would really like to stop fighting, but too many of the people hold such hostilities against the other side, the leaders are basically being dragged into it. I don't know which it is."And in this seat of peace tumultuous warsShall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;Disorder, horror, fear and mutinyShall here inhabit, and this land be call'dThe field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls." - (William Shakespeare, King John 4.1.145-50)

the widening gyreUnderscoring your sentiment - there was peace throughout the Mideast, and much of the world during the eight years of Clinton. Personally, I had assumed that war was a thing of the past - would never happen again. I didn't count on the money that can be made from armaments and defense contracts. Sixteen billion for Halliburton alone. As much of the world's volatility relates to the Mideast, it is appropriate to discuss their concerns. It seems to me that our greatest danger is the one-sided propaganda championed by Thomas Friedman and most others in the West. We don't call David Ben-Gurion or Menachem Begin terrorists. Though Chiam Potok writes about them bombing the Brits out of Palestine. But we call them freedom fighters.The essentiality is to be even-handed. To search for causes and solutions, not labels and political alliances. I've no preference for Israel over Syria, or Taiwan over China. I simply want a planet of peace; where America, France, and Russia are not the largest arms dealers in the universe. The Carlyle Group may get rich, but the rest of us all suffer when London, New York, Madrid, and Mumbai, are political targets.

The fish rots from the head down... so the saying goes.Seems to me the leaders don't really want peace. I know someone who is a translator in that arena and has sat at the very top - told me that the leaders do everything they can to derail a compromise whenever one is offered. Go figure.

the red animalSome things never change."They were going to look at war, the red animal -- war, the blood-swollen god." -- Stephen Crane.

Just words on paperIf half the American reading public cared as much about U.N. security council resolutions as they do about Yeats quotes, maybe this wouldn't be so perplexing to us. Maybe we wouldn't be so blind and powerless against the beasts and butchers who love war.I can't think about literature today either.

I am trying (struggling) to teach my boys the value of literature. It is hard as hell. Especially in the middle of conflicts where we (me, too) set all of that aside to get through this. Whatever "get through this" might be. On any given day it's different. And having done it for a while, now, I am seeing that teaching them the value of literature has a lot to do with teaching them the value of listening.I want them to learn to listen.Even to the other side.

This is the time for LiteratureA great and riveting read: THE MOSSAD by Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau.I learned a lot. Especially about my own ignorance.

I wishthat there were more words for this.

"O, rocks!...Tell us in plain words."