As we approach the dog days of summer here in the US, the news is full of death and destruction.
The tragic shoot down of the Malaysian Airlines flight exemplifies the madness the world is now experiencing not only over the fields of eastern Ukraine but other places as well.

The murder of three young men in Israel has led to the death of too many in a typical revenge filled response to an act of murder. Of course Hamas and others have not helped the situation as they share in the madness. How many lives innocently lost can make up for the loss of another innocent. It is utter folly and madness to believe that anything other than death and destruction will come of the current escalation in Gaza. Security will not be forthcoming in a society where an eye for an eye seems to be the typical response. The undertakers and arms merchants profit and everyone else loses.

The airplane that was shot down has already seen a key conservative commentator call for arms to be sent to the Ukrainian government which will only help escalate the violence.
Here is another example of a tragedy for those involved. These poor people who were on that flight, many going on a long looked forward to vacation. Words can not do justice to the loss of innocent life. To my way of thinking the response should not be to send weapons but rather to stop airplane flights to Russia and trade that they desperately need.

What we see in Iraq and Syria is the use of religion to mask and excuse the use of violence. If there is a God, God would be appalled at the use of his name to justify killing. God is about love and not revenge. One sect of a religion will never be superior to another. Man is the problem and civilians have always been the victims of wars. The ballot box is the proper place to settle disputes not the battlefield. The separation of church and state is a viable and valuable idea for all in order to live in peace with each other.
In Russia, Putin uses nationalism to increase his power, while progress is stifled, and the people, his people that he governs over, grasp at the idea of returning to a bygone era when Russia was a world power.
Most people want above all to take care of their family, have a roof over their heads and food on the table.
The question that each country and each group should ask of itself that is involved in the current madness is what if anything is to be gained by all of this? Will Russia be more secure and will their people be any happier? Will the Sunnis in Iraq be satisfied and their people well fed and with a future worth living? Will the Shiites find happiness in war? Will the people of Syria find anything from their Civil War other than death and ashes? Will Israel and the Palestinians find anything other than more graves to wail over and more hate to hand down to the next generation?
War is good for absolutely nothing. Insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting a different result. And my friends we have nothing but a world gone mad this summer. May the heat of the summer find cooler heads in the fall and May all of the participants in the madness find wisdom and turn their weapons into plowshares.