The end of war does not bring peace, it just brings about the end of war. This confusion of defining the result of winning a war as an indication we have achieved peace, can be corrected by being willing to see things differently and more clearly.

Peace is the result of a total embrace of love. Peace is being open to truth and seeing all things new. Peace results in healing, joy, love, and total bliss. Peace is natural and only appears to leave when we purposely turn our eyes away from it, but it's always still there.

War is all that peace is not. War is an attempt to force a condition. War is an attempt to make something exist which is not natural and will not last. War is pursued only through fear and a total misunderstanding of how we are connected to those we choose to war against.

History appears to have provided many examples of where war has eventually resulted in peace, but this is an error of perception. The end of war does not bring peace, it just brings about the end of war. This confusion of defining the result of winning a war as an indication we have achieved peace, can be corrected by being willing to see things differently and more clearly.

Webster's definition of an 'oxymoron' states it as being a situation where opposite or contradictory ideas are combined. The title of this article is an oxymoron...'achieving peace through war'. Peace will never result from war because war is a total contradiction of peace and peace is a total contradiction of war. One cannot exist with the other, nor could one ever lead to the result of the other. They are opposites that can never interact.

Being at peace is not just a ceasing of hostilities, but is a characteristic of how you live and how you treat others within the world. Being at peace is not about not waging war, but is about embracing and extending peace by being peaceful and pursuing peaceful methods of existence. When we are not doing so, we are not at peace, whether there is an active war underway or not.

There are almost endless examples of where we think war was necessary in our past to bring about peace and it's hard to fathom how we could have survived without engaging in war to either protect ourselves or gain something we valued or believed we needed. This method of thinking only exists because we go far, far out of our way to not see that there is always a peaceful solution. The peaceful solution is often not politically correct and may not bring immediate results, however, the pursuit of peace will always result in peace. Quite the contrary, the pursuit of war will never result in peace and will usually only result in additional war, pain and suffering.

Peace is not the act of not fighting or not demanding vengeance. Peace is the result of having removed the anger and fear that brought about what we feel is the need for war or vengeance in the first place. War does not stop this anger or fear, it just results in the anger or fear of the stronger army, overpowering the anger or fear of the lesser army. There is no winning, there is simply the error in thinking that somehow we have gained control, but control is not victory. Control is bondage through fear, and peace will never exist where bondage and fear reign.

Recent history has given us a blatant example of how war does not bring about peace. Our nation experienced a major terrorist attack several years ago and our response was to seek vengeance and wage war. Is the world a better place today because of the war we waged? It is not. From an objective view, not only is the world today not a better place, but it is now more volatile than before the attacks occurred. War engenders more fear and more war. The only way to 'Win' through war is to totally obliterate your enemy, but that does not bring peace, just the end of war. When your goal becomes one of 'winning a war' as compared to 'bringing about peace', peace will never occur because it is not part of the goal and can never be the result of war.

So, what were our other options when the terrorists made their play? What else could we have done to bring about peace....just fold up and ignore what happened? Where we supposed to just turn the other cheek and say 'please, hit me again'?

Peace is not about inaction, but about peaceful thinking with resulting peaceful actions and effects. Peace is not about giving up but about becoming open to allow healing to occur in any situation and within any event. Peace neither looks to find blame nor does it care to determine who started a problem. Peace looks past all judgement and simply chooses to apply healing to all sides of the perceived problem so that the issue can be seen truthfully and fully resolved to where everyone wins.

When any form of attack appears to occur, we can choose to accept the attack and then attack back, or we can choose to see the attempt of attack as a cry for help that indicates a healing is necessary for the situation. When the terrorists attacked, instead of embracing thoughts of vengeance and war, our thoughts could have been focused on providing healing to the situation that allowed the attack to happen in the first place. Then our minds and hearts would be open to say things in the spirit of truth and peace, such as:

• "Our actions in the past have provoked you to fear us so greatly that you eventually felt you had no choice other than to attack us so that we might stop affecting you in the future. Neither of us has done the better thing and we are both responsible for a world situation where great healing is necessary so that peace can return."
• "As a first step towards healing and peace, we are going to immediately change our motivations for how we interact within this world. We have no right in playing the worlds police and meddling in the relationships between other nations and we will stop doing so immediately. With the exceptions of countries currently under attack that need military defensive aid, all our troops are coming home. We will only use our military defensively from this time forward."
• "Our actions in the past have included deliberate ignorance of areas of the world that are truly in need, but had no natural resources we desired. Our goal from this point forward is to provide financial, technical and educational support to the starving nations and struggling people throughout the world and help stimulate new growth and true hope."
• "We will also work with all nations to help best distribute the resources of the world as equally as possible amongst all nations so that the seeds of war are not watered in the first place. Feeding, housing and educating our brothers and sisters of the world is all that matters now."
• "The terrorist attack upon our country has awoken a sleeping giant who was dreaming of war, but inherently knows only of peace. We are awake once again and will not behave foolishly and warlike again. We are not at war, so please stop any future attacks and let's sit down and truly heal the rift that has allowed this situation to fail so poorly. All is forgiven because we have all contributed to this state of the world, so there is no blame to cast and no guilty party to destroy. We extend our peace to you, and whether you believe it or not or initially accept it or not, you will see it within us as we so dramatically change how we treat all nations and people of the world."

Granted, some of those statements might be a little 'utopian', but I was just looking to make a clear point that the idea of pursuing peace instead of war is always an option and is possible. We can be a nation of peace. We can be a nation that uses our resources to extend blessings instead of a nation that uses our might to inflict a misguided concept of world order.

We are mighty spiritual beings that have a powerful capacity to bring about that which is our greatest thought. If the greatest thought within you is of an inevitable world war, catastrophes, economic collapse, poverty, starvation, disease and a government controlled by a war-like leader... then that is what you will help bring about, and are already supporting. Likewise, if the greatest thought within you is a love and desire that all people and nations pursue peace, along with a sincere desire to work fairly with all nations of the world... then that is what you will help bring about...and are already supporting.

Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect peace casts out war. Concluding a war does not bring about peace, but by pursuing peace, you remove the need for war and it simply vanishes. The result of peace is the total rejection of the concept of war. The result of peace is the absolute dismissal that war is even a slightest part of the answer because war and peace cannot exist at the same time and will only ever annihilate each other.

This world has always had two choices...war or peace. You can side with war or you can side with peace. Which side are you on? There is nothing in between because you can embrace only darkness or light, but never both. Do you welcome peace or do you welcome war? Which do you believe will provide answers in the world? Which do you believe a truly loving God would embrace as an answer? Which do you believe a truly loving God would reject as an answer? Which cannot exist where there is a God of perfect love?

You can be a part of ridding this world of war. Instead of seeing war as inevitable, prophesied or even divinely necessary, choose instead to see peace as the only solution and be open only for what it will bring. Look away from all other ideas and options and choose peace. Be open for answers. Be open for peace. By being willing to see the future of this world as more peaceful, you will be part of the reason that peace spreads more quickly around the world. Be peaceful...and support the concept of Achieving Peace Through Peace.