The natural, instinctive reaction to abuse is revenge. Civilization requires taming many instincts useful for survival by hunters/gatherers, including the urge for revenge. Aggressive war is one of the worst and ugliest forms of revenge, but in “modern” society most of us are far removed from war’s realities when the war is “over there.”
Many movies do the best job possible in confronting us with the individual, personal tragedies of war for those of you who only experience it on TV news. I have no doubt that if more people understood the nature and consequences of war, they would advocate it far less often.
One of those movies you should watch is Golda. Golda Meir was the Prime Minister of Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. It very well depicts the pain, confusion, and tragedy of war (in this case an attack on Israel by Egypt, which Israel obviously could not avoid). We watched it last night and cried yet again.
Author: Warren Coats
I specialize in advising central banks on monetary policy and the development of the capacity to formulate and implement monetary policy. I joined the International Monetary Fund in 1975 from which I retired in 2003 as Assistant Director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department. While at the IMF I led or participated in missions to the central banks of over twenty countries (including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Zimbabwe) and was seconded as a visiting economist to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1979-80), and to the World Bank's World Development Report team in 1989. After retirement from the IMF I was a member of the Board of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority from 2003-10 and of the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review from 2010-2017. Prior to joining the IMF I was Assistant Prof of Economics at UVa from 1970-75. I am currently a fellow of Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. In March 2019 Central Banking Journal awarded me for my “Outstanding Contribution for Capacity Building.” My recent books are One Currency for Bosnia: Creating the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina; My Travels in the Former Soviet Union; My Travels to Afghanistan; My Travels to Jerusalem; and My Travels to Baghdad. I have a BA in Economics from the UC Berkeley and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. My dissertation committee was chaired by Milton Friedman and included Robert J. Gordon. I live in National Landing Va 22202
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Warren, Pan and I saw the movie a month ago, and the acting, the plot were superb. Though I am much younger than you, I remember in my infancy, my family discussing about the bravery and grid of Golda Myers. I don’t know how well the movie follows the facts, but I do attest about the depicted pig-headedness of young/old Ariel Sharon who in 2002, when Barney and I joined the US-Jewish elected member of Congress’ dinner at the Israeli prime ministers’ house disinvited me, at the last minute (it was rumored he did not believe in same-sex couples -though we had met earlier many of the openly-gay and lesbian Israeli generals who are admirable). This created a last minute diplomatic backslash as Barney told the US Ambassador he was not attending the dinner either and it ended up in disinviting all 12 spouses to the dinner. Sharon was a bad guy and created chaos in his country as attested by the Israeli LGBTQ groups and NGOs. He also had long painful death after his stoke. In contrast, Golda Myers was an amazing PM who with intelligence, tight-fist but also empathy for the adversaries (and with the careful support of the US) brought the Arab world to recognize Israel as a country and brought much needed peace for the region. This peace also brought oil prices down in the US during the Carter administration. The moral of this movie is that even at times of crisis in the Middle East, the US should show support for Israel because they are a democratic country and are important to the US policy in the region, but the US should also facilitate a reconciliation with the Arab world while condemning HAMAS or any militant groups. moreover, the US should be very careful in creating any idea of support of expansion of West Bank settlements. That should not be our role and is questionable.
Sergio,
Thanks for your very interesting comments. You have a particularly unique and interesting perspective.