Wars: Causes and Consequences

• War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life.
• War is merely an enlargement of our daily action. It is the collective result of our individual activities. 
• We are responsible for war and what can we do to stop it, is by transforming ourselves.
• Impending war cannot be stopped by anyone, because it is already in movement. 
• But we, seeing that the house is on fire, can understand the causes of that fire, can go away from it and build in a new place with different materials that are not combustible, that will not produce other wars. That is all that we can do.
• In order to save ourselves from wars, we have to cease to be greedy, cease piling up wealth, seeking power, domination, and be morally simple in our thoughts and feelings and in our relationships. 
• If circumstances are too powerful for you to alter, then you are responsible for the war and destruction. Circumstances can be controlled by us, because we created them.
• Society is the product of relationship. Societal changes merely relying on legislation for the transformation of outward society, while remaining inwardly corrupt, while continuing inwardly to seek power, position, domination, is to destroy the outward, however carefully and scientifically built. That which is inward is always overcoming the outward.
• What causes war – religious, political or economic? Obviously belief, either in nationalism, in an ideology, or in a particular dogma. If we had no belief but goodwill, love and consideration between us, then there would be no wars. 
• But we are fed on beliefs, ideas and dogmas that breed discontent. What causes war is the desire for power, position, prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism, the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized religion, the worship of a dogma. 
• If you as an individual belonging to organized religions, greedy for power, envious, you are bound to produce a society which will result in destruction. So it depends upon us, not on the leaders.
• How quickly we could bring an end of all these wars, is an appalling misery! But we are indifferent. We have three meals a day, we have our jobs, we have our bank account, The higher up we are, the more we want security, permanency, tranquility, the more we want to be left alone, to maintain things fixed as they are; but they cannot be maintained as they are, because there is nothing to maintain.
• We may talk about peace, have conferences, sit round a table and discuss, but inwardly, psychologically, we want power, position, we are bound by beliefs, by dogmas, for which we are willing to die and destroy each other.
• To have peace, we must be peaceful; to live peacefully means not to create antagonism. Peace is not an ideal which is merely an escape, an avoidance of a contradiction. But to have peace, we will have to love, we should not to live an ideal life, but to see things as they are and act upon them, transform them.
• We seek psychological security, which does not exist; and we seek it through power, through position, through titles, names – all of which is destroying physical security. This is fact.
• To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual. Economic revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless. We will not win peace because we will not give up our position, our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid lives.
• To rely on others for  peace is futile. No leader is going to give us peace, no government, no army, no country. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. There can be right action only when there is right thinking and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.
• To put an end to outward war, you must begin to put an end to war in yourself. The world miseries and wars are not going to be stopped by your casual assent. They will be stopped only when you realize the danger, when you realize your responsibility, when you do not leave it to somebody else.
• If you realize the suffering, if you see the urgency of immediate action and do not postpone, then you will transform yourself; peace will come only when you yourself are peaceful, when you yourself are at peace with your neighbor.

In war there are no winners, but all are losers.
War is an unmitigated disaster. There is nothing good about it.
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time ... Leo Tolstoy
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength ... George Orwell
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind ... John F. Kennedy

My View:

In a war one country might win, but soldiers from both sides will perish. While winning country celebrates, the families of deceased soldiers will suffer loss of their family member forever. The economies of both warring countries will suffer severe setbacks. An example is Iraq. Prior to 1992 Kuwait wars, Iraqis were leading high end lifestyle. Post war their life is miserable. Prior to Iraq war in 2003, USA's national debt was under $1 trillion. The war costs are estimated at $800 billion and continued costs of the war are about $6 trillion. Today USA's national debt is $9 trillion, mainly due to Iraq war impact and some other reasons as well. Finally, wars were never between people or soldiers of the warring countries, but due to ego clash of their national leaders.

Source: 1948, Second public talk; Collected Works of Jiddu Krishnamurti