Some links for peace on Remembrance Sunday

One of my pet peeves is that for all the rhetoric of ethical talk about peace and war, the idea of going to war as a last resort and within certain conditions [and since I have had to be teaching just war theory recently it is in my mind] is really just that: rhetoric. If we were really serious about wars not happening and only as a last resort, we would be spending more money and effort on peacebuilding which is far more effective and usually far cheaper. We would consider those who lose life in efforts at reconciliation as heroes and erect statues of them and name streets after them rather than after generals. But the truth of the matter is that we are lazy and that warfare is embedded culturally with plenty of supporting myths and enough honoured dead to make alternatives seem like some kind of betrayal.

So, on what is in Britain Remembrance Sunday when all sorts of ceremonies are taking place to honour those whose lives we lost fighting for their country; being killed even while killing or attempting to kill others, I offer a set of links witnessing to a better way of not reacting with a resort to war but proacting with making the conditions for peace with justice.
The UN Building a Culture of Peace project is worth noting.
White poppies supporting a culture of peace (a UN project).
This site sets out its stall thus;

building a culture of peace should be a priority and a part of this process is both to question and to challenge our easy acquiescence in a culture of violence

and offers educational resources to that end.
There's the International Fellowship of Reconciliation; a Christian peace organisation built on the idea that our commonality in Christ transcends nationality. And the homebrewed Brit version is here. Angilcans might like to know about the APF.
And Roman Catholics have Pax Christi to relate to.

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